Book One: New Blood
by Rowan Mad
Summary: Draculaura is new in town. The problem? She would rather not be there. Will her new friends help her see that change can be good? AU. Remastered Version.
1. The First Day

I leaned against the leather of my father's car and stared out the window. Another city, another life, another lie. I played with the tips of my black hair and stared out the window at the rain that was pounding against every surface. I heard my father and his girlfriend speaking in the front seat, hushed whispers. Of course, I heard every word. Being a vampire and all. But, I ignored their words. It would be rude to listen in.

According to my father, the moving company had already delivered and set everything up. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this house and our last house in Romania. Only in appearance. I sighed and felt tears prick at the back of my eyes. I couldn't believe we had moved across the world! My friends and boyfriend were all in Romania! I'd have to make all new friends. What if they weren't monsters? What if they didn't like me? Did my clothes even fit into American fashion? I'd totes have to go shopping…which is never a bad thing…but I had no one to go with!

"Stop sighing, Laura," my father said, glancing back at me, "You'll like it here, plenty of kids your age," he said, as if that would make me feel better.

"I'll introduce you to the Wolfe family!" Samantha exclaimed looking back at me with a huge smile, "They will be your new next door neighbours. They'll introduce you to Cleo, Deuce, and all of their little friends!"

I wanted to tell her that they probably weren't that much younger than she was, but I kept the comment to myself. I didn't like confrontation, and my father wouldn't be happy. I just wanted him to be happy for once, and so far Samantha made him happy. "That would be…nice?"

The car pulled up a driveway to a Victorian styled house. I hid my relief. It looked almost the same as the house in Romania, only smaller. If it wasn't in America it would be perfect! I wondered if there would be bats in the attic like the one in Romania?

The two of them stepped out of the car as I gathered my things. My car door opened, and my Uncle gave me a toothy grin. "You've aged so much since I last saw you. It's almost your 1600th, right?" he asked, holding out his hand to help me out of the car. An umbrella over us so the sun wouldn't burn. I smiled up at him and threw my arms around him.

"Uncle Vlad!" I giggled, "You've gotten so old."

He gave me a mock scowl, "I haven't aged a day, and you know it."

Samantha and my father were already at the door, he carried nearly all the suitcases. My Uncle shook his head, and shut the car door. "A normie living under my roof," he grumbled, "I'm not adjusting my sleep schedule for her."

"Being awake during the day isn't that bad," I replied with a smile, "Look how beautiful everything is?" I sighed looking around, and then felt my happiness fade. The trees weren't the same, and the houses were more closely packed together than when we lived in Romania. "Er…well…"

"You'll get use to the differences," he promised and picked up my black and pink suitcase. "Come on."

We headed up the steps. Before I walked in, I swallowed and looked at my phone. Already missing my friends. It would be twelve there right now. I took a deep breath, there was no going back. I knew that. Walking into the house I looked at the foyer. It was large, marble floors, decorative pillars and a grand staircase that separated halfway up to go to the two different sides of the house which held the different rooms. There was an archway that lead into a living room area, but the other rooms were blocked off by doors. The chandelier was not powered by electricity, but candles. They were all melted and I could tell none had been lit in a while. I couldn't wait to see this place lit up by all the candles. Ah, it would be beautiful, and candle lit is so much prettier than harsh electricity!

"Laura, go and unpack your suit case and put your things away, Samantha will bring you over to our next door neighbours after you freshen up," my father said, pressing a kiss to my forehead, "Te ador."

"I love you too," I murmured, he patted my back before turning to his new fling and kissing her on the cheek. My uncle pulled a face, making me giggle.

"Your room is the same spot as in Romania," my uncle spoke loudly; "I'll show you where it is, my favourite niece!"

I giggled again, "I'm not your favourite niece."

"There you are wrong, have you met Micera's children? Devil spawn! Radu only has a small boy. No other female babies in our family," he retorted with a nod, "Now, how are you?"

"I'm tired, and homesick," I replied to his question honestly, I felt my throat tighten as tears threatened to spill. Sometimes my uncle was more of a father than my own. He glanced down and shook his head.

"Well, fortunately, your father's little speeches about your liking the new houses and places are correct. The kids in this area are friendly, and the families are very close. I took the time to get to know them and have knitted my way into their circle of friends, and you will too!" he said patting me on the back before opening a door. "Your father isn't one to decorate, so I took the liberty and now you have a room that you will enjoy."

The room was very pretty. Pink and black striped walls lined with white moulding. The floor was dark hardwood covered by a cute fluffy pink rug. In the corner was a beautiful antique vanity that I could swear was from the castle we lived in two hundred plus years ago. I stared in awe at the room, taking in everything. The coffin was black with a cute pink bat painted on the lid. I touched the bat and my uncle walked over. "Coffin's are comfier than beds…but I didn't know that a human was staying with us. I will have to replace it with a bed from the lower floor until she leaves or she learns and accepts us as vampires."

Tears pricked at my eyes, "Can't I just lock my door?"

My uncle rubbed my back, "We can't let her become suspicious of us before we wish her to be."

I knew the answer before I had even asked, but I didn't want to give up everything that I was for this woman. I felt a tear slip from my eye and my uncle waved towards a door. "You've got your own bathroom!"

A door led off into a bathroom, which held a shower in one corner, and then an old-fashioned stand-alone tub stretched out near a frosted window. I loved it. It was so me. It had a high back, and the feet of the tub were claws. I wiped the tears from my face.

"You also have a walk in closet, which don't show your fathers girlfriend, but it's just the next room converted into a closet for you. I know you love your fashion," he replied and opened the door. He flicked on the light and I grinned. It was….fantastic! All my clothes were hung already, and there was a mannequin posing one of my favourite outfits. I jumped at my uncle, hugging him tightly.

"You are totes the best!" I squealed, before spinning around the room. "There is soo much room. I could just die happy!"

"You are dead," my uncle teased.

"Well, then I'm for sure deader than dead. This is fangtastic."

"Haha, vampire puns," he rolled his eyes and checked his watch. "You should prepare to go over to the Wolfe's. I'll leave you alone."

I sat down on the lid of the coffin. I knew this was a temporary arrangement. There would be a normal bed in here before the next day, but I was glad that my first night in Salem would be in the cozy comfort of a coffin. I use to hate sleeping in coffins, for nearly 1300 hundred years of my life I had slept in a normal bed. However, just after the Werewolf-Vampire War, we went into hiding and were forced to sleep in coffins for such a long time. When we appeared back to the world, we just…took up sleeping in coffins. Honestly? It's the comfiest thing in the world, being so enclosed and safe in the coffin.

Thankfully, I was also really tiny; most coffins that we slept in were big enough that I had plenty of space to move about in if I couldn't sleep. Nothing is more difficult than trying to fall asleep in a tiny coffin that you can't even roll over in!

My size came from my mother, and I'm glad that was the only thing I got from her. There was nothing nice about that woman, and I try to find the good in anyone. At least my father's three wives, Marishka, Aleera, and Verona would protect me if I needed it. Though, I suppose that had more to do with their love for my father, than for their feelings towards me. They're still back at the Romanian castle writhing in pure hatred about being left there while my father took up an American life.

"Laura! Come on, the kids are back from school!" Samantha said, knocking on my door. I told her I would be out in a moment and quickly touched up my makeup as best as I could, and combed my hair out so it was soft and shiny. Then with a deep breath I headed out of my room. Time to make friends.

^v^ ^v^

This. Was. So. Awkward. Samantha was clearly disliked by the Wolfes. Adult, as well as their children, and they were only tolerating her because my uncle was there. I was not normally shy, but everyone here was so good looking! They clearly knew all the latest fashions and knew what looked good on them. I was wearing a black dress I was absolutely positive now that it was from the last decade. Fashion faux pas!

Samantha nudged me towards one of the kids, a girl with tan skin and brown hair. She was tall and athletic; her amber almost yellow, eyes looked me up and down before sticking out her hand. In an interesting accent she said, "My name's Claudine."

"Laura," I murmured and shook the hand she was reoffered, I smiled at her.

"Your hands are like ice," Claudine said looking down and then grinning.

"Maybe she's a vampire," one of the younger kids said looking up at me, "She's got th' accent for it! Pale skin an' cold!" I laughed and shook my head.

"Fortunately, I am not a vampire," I replied simple with a grin.

"That's my younger brother, Don," she explained after he got distracted after something pelted him in the head. "He's one of the triplets, Howie and Leena are the other two," she clarified and grabbed a piece of what looked like cold bacon. I averted my eyes from the meat, my head feeling woozy.

"You have a lot of siblings," I glanced back into the living room, seeing the two boys wrestling lightly, and Leena talking to her father.

"That's half of them," Claudine groaned and shook her head, "I have one older brother, Claude, he's...alright I guess, out with Deuce and Heath right now."

"Half? You have six siblings?" I asked in awe, I wished I had other brothers and sisters. However, I was an only child, and it was near impossible for a vampire to have many children.

"Unfortunately," she sighed, "five of them are younger than me. Rocks is the third oldest and then there is Conner."

"You are so lucky," I sighed staring at her, "Quite honestly, my father doesn't stay with females long enough for them to have babies. Even though I probably could have like fifty siblings."

Claudine stared at me before laughing, "You say that as if you are alright with your father having a lot of relationships."

I smiled and shook my head, "He's happy, and it's not like any of them are going to be my mother," I shrugged and she patted my shoulder.

"Hey, you're the lucky one. I'd kill to have a room of my own! Unfortunately, I have to share with Leena…and she borrows everything, constantly," Claudine rolled her eyes, and glanced over at the girl, her eyes widened and then she let out a sound that was similar to a growl, "That's my shirt!" she yelled at the younger girl. "I told you to stay outta my things!"

"Ha! It looks better on me than you!" Leena sneered back, sticking out her tongue.

I giggled, hiding my smile with my hand. Claudine slapped the table before crossing her arms. "I swear to god, one day she won't have access to my closet. What will she do then?"

"Visit and 'borrow' your things," I teased, and Claudine sent me a smile.

The backdoor opened and in strode a male that was similar to Claudine, the same tan skin and golden eyes. He was very tall, taller than Claudine and her parents. It slightly scared me, but Claudine just muttered something and grabbed another piece of bacon. I swallowed thickly, averting my eyes from the meat. At least it was cooked. If it was raw? No. I couldn't. Blood makes me faint faster than anything else.

"Welcome home, Claude, didn't you get the memo? The next door neighbours were moving in today, Mom told you to be home right after school."

"I forgot, besides I doubt they even noticed my absence," Claude said and shook the water out of his hair and took off his jacket. He hung it up before lifting his gaze. It landed on me, and then he cleared his throat and straightened. "Hello," he said, sounding slightly surprised.

"This is Laura, their daughter," Claudine introduced us, the male held out his large hand. It still made me cautious but I placed my hand in his and shook it. "Hey Mom!" Claudine shouted after we dropped our hands and he moved to the fridge, "Are Laura and Vlad staying for dinner?"

"If they would like, we'll be having steak, if you wish to stay," Harriet explained to my uncle in the living room. My stomach dropped and my head swarmed. Immediately, I could smell the blood from the fridge where the steaks were. My eyes drifted over and I caught the sight of the steaks underneath Claude's arm. I leaned heavily against the counter, keeping my eyes away from the meat.

"How do you like your steak?" Claude asked, "Rare or well cooked?"

I couldn't help glancing over again and caught the sight of the steak once again. My vision blacked out and crumpled to the floor.

I heard the shouts of alarm before my vision cleared.

"Draculaura?" my father whispered, helping me to my feet.

I felt my face heat up, knowing they were all staring at me. "Sorry, I…Jet lag," I blurted out lamely. My father rubbed my back.

"Why did you call her Draculaura?" Leena asked my father, "Is that a play off of Dracula?"

"Howleen-" Mr. Wolfe said but cut himself off. My heart beat quickened, but my father just laughed.

"I just said 'sweetheart' in Romanian," he lied smoothly, and then turned to Claudine's parents and smiled at them, "I better get her back home, we wouldn't want to incontinence you again. Samantha, brother," he said and guided me towards the door. I nearly fainted again, the smell of blood still lingering in my sense. Flashbacks darting in my mind every time my eyes shut.

"If she continues to feel sick in the next couple of days, you should take her to the Stein house, Viv will be more than willing to help her," Mr. Wolfe said as he held the door open for us, he leaned and had a brief conversation with my uncle in hushed tones before we left.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey guys! Long time no talk, haha. I've recently rewatched basically all of the monster high movies and some of the webisodes and I'm super back into MH! So, when I remembered my email/password for this account I logged on and re-read New Blood.

My response? Ugh! I loved it but hated it! The story line was great, but my writing back in 2012 was awful. Also, I wrote a prequel to this, and there were a lot of continuity errors so I decided to just rewrite the story all over again.

There will be a lot of changes to the story line, to characters, and some new characters will be introduced. The story will not be one long story containing 81 chapters, but will be trilogy containing 25-30 chapters depending on how much I add or change. I also might change the pairings from the old one, because after watching Boo York, Boo York, I honestly can't see Deuce and Cleo with anyone besides each other. Clawdeen don't need no man!

Also, Draculaura doesn't know that the Wolfe family are werewolves, so until they do they get normie names!

Don't forget to drop a review down below!


	2. Not So Sweet Dreams

I woke from dead sleep feeling confused and panicked. I remembered fainting at the Wolfe house after seeing the meat, and then leaving with my father, uncle, and Samantha. Once we got home, I couldn't think of what happened. On top my amnesia, my head felt foggy, and whenever I shifted, it pounded.

The smell of blood was faint now, but I could still smell it. That could be why I woke so disoriented as I laid surrounded by the comforting coffin walls. The blood was next door in a fridge. There was no possible way I should be able to smell it all the in my house, at what was possibly night. They should have eaten the steaks by now. I pried my eyes open and stared at the inky blackness of the coffin lid. Carefully, I pushed the lid up to expose my body to fresh air and the light of the moon. The curtains were drawn shut; just a sliver of the silver moonlight filtering in. It was enough that I could see.

As I pulled myself up, there was a tug on my right arm. I glanced down, seeing a dark cord run out from a needle that was poking into the crook of my elbow. Upon further investigation, I found it attached to an AB positive blood bag. My head swarmed, and I felt nauseous.

"Draculaura," my father spoke up, he stood by the door. A silent shadow watching over me. He hadn't been there when I woke up. He walked forwards and sat down at the end of the coffin.. "You were starving," he explained keeping level eye contact with me. His ruby eyes glinted in the moon light and he looked angry, or at least mildly irritated. I could never tell with him. A stoic man.

"I ate some fruits on the plane ride-"

"You know why I have to force feed you blood," my father interrupted sharply, and then his facial features softened after a few seconds. He reached forwards, his fingers resting on my cheek. "I don't want to see you die because you are not accepting the fact that you are, and will always be a vampire."

"I don't want to be a murderer," I whispered, looking down and pulling my legs closer to me. I didn't see his reaction, and I didn't want to. His fingers dropped from my face and he stood up.

"You will be if you starve yourself, remember last time?" he questioned, I closed my eyes tightly. How could I forget? He sighed, "I've let you have your childish ways until now, but from now on, you will be drinking blood. As your King, I command you, as your father, I beg of you. I do not want to see my flesh and blood die. I have witnessed many of my children, your siblings, perish at birth or in infancy because they couldn't adapt to being a vampire even without knowledge of anything else. Please, I couldn't bear to lose you. You are the only person I have ever truly loved."

I still didn't meet his eyes, and after a stretch of silence the door clicked shut. I knew Dracula entered my room, but the man left my father. I couldn't feed off humans, or monsters. I didn't want to kill, not again. My hands were already drenched with too many people's blood. Ever since the war, I hadn't drained a single creature. I had tried, but…I remembered the faces of those I had killed and I couldn't do it. I hated it. This is why I was vegan. My father may have been right about it being unnatural for me, but he was wrong about it being childish. It was my choice and my body. I wouldn't be the murderer he was.

I rolled onto my side, keeping the needle in my arm. He was right that I needed blood, but I knew if I took it out even now he wouldn't be happy. I could only push the limits for so long before he wouldn't put up with it.

Why did I have to move here? Everything was changing. Everything was...wrong. I was glad to be away from my father's brides...but I loved the mansion. The cool stone floors under my feet as I ran around during the sun lit hours, the feel of warmth radiating from the curtains as I read a book. The bats in the attic fluttering above my head when I fed them. My heart ached. I missed my friends. Gory and Bram. I missed Valentine. Tears bubbled in my eyes and before I even blinked an eye I was reaching towards my phone.

Six new messages.

My heart swelled, and I laughed through the tears. Brushing them away quickly, I started reading them. They helped as much as they caused me heart ache.

Gory and Bram were looking forwards to their anniversary, and were going to do something big this year. I hoped it would not be too big, like Bram asking her to marry him. I would totes not be impressed if I wasn't invited. I mean, they have been my besties for two hundred and seventy nine years now!

Bram was asking me my advice on what to get Gory for her birthday, and for their anniversary. I replied honestly, saying what I knew she would like. That girl was all about high end fashion and Bram, putting the two together, and I pushed him towards the right ideas. That took off three text messages.

The other three were from Valentine. The first was him asking if I was okay and settling down well, using his normal sweetheart. The second was a romantic poem in Romanian that if I was standing would have my knees weak. The last was him pretty much demanding that I didn't get another boyfriend. A fangtastic grin stretched across my lips and I replied. I couldn't even imagine getting another boyfriend other than Valentine. He was so romantic and he knew exactly how to make my knees quake and fill my stomach with bats.

I clutched my phone to my chest and closed the lid to my coffin, slipping back into the dark. If only the time change wasn't so drastic, there was nothing in the world I wanted more than to have him call me and sing me to sleep. Just the thought relaxed me enough to help me into slumber.

^v^ ^v^

 _Fingers caressed my cheeks softly, their tips callused and rough, but still a shiver ran through my body and I leaned into them. Lips pressed against mine firmly and possessively. It left me out of breath and dizzy when his lips left. Darkness covered us and I could feel and hear his heart beat underneath my fingers. Whoever it was, it was not a vampire. I felt my teeth protrude out further, wanting to feed. Tears bubbled at my eyes at the thought of wanting to feed again. I craved this person's blood. I needed it._

 _A soft chuckle sounded out and then soft skin against my lips. Fingers brushed my hair away from my neck, and then trailed up and down my spine. A fresh shiver followed his fingers and my lips brushed his neck again. This earned a shiver from him. His heartbeat was calm and even. Not that of a person in fear. Not that of a donor who got off on being bitten. Calm. Like they accepted it, and didn't care either way. My fingers pierced his neck and I tasted the metallic taste of blood, mixed with an earthy taste._

 _A groan emitted from him and I immediately pulled away. Tears fell from my eyes and my fingers found his face, they traced over scars and felt the contours of his face. I brushed my fingers through his hair and closed my eyes, a pointless motion since it was so dark. A hand grabbed mine and pressed it against their lips._

 _"Darlin' you shouldn't be dreamin' bout other guys like this," a familiar southern accented voice whispered in my ear. I was torn away from the heat of the man in front of me and pressed against a cooler body. This earned a growl from behind me. "We belong together."_

 _The cool body disappeared and the sound of fighting was heard. Growls and hisses. Shouts and threats. Sound of tearing flesh and smell of thick blood. A sharp heartbreaking whine and then a hard drop._

 _The darkness misted away and Valentine appeared staring down at me. His mouth covered with blood and a dark grin on his face. He advanced towards me and captured my lips in a kiss. The same blood I had tasted before entered my mouth._

^v^ ^v^

I sat up, screaming. My head hit the lid of my coffin, and I immediately threw it open. My undead heart would have been beating so fast if I was alive. The needle tore out of my arm, but the wound healed quickly. My bedroom door was thrown open and before I could blink, my father was standing beside my coffin. Dark black eyes stared at me. Terror and fury flashed through them. I stared up at my father and attempted to stop the tears and the quick pace of my breathing. My father's chest stopped heaving and his tense muscles relaxed. He dropped down to his knees beside the coffin and pulled me into a hug. Hushing me, speaking soft words in Romanian, and stroking my hair as if I were a child again. I welcomed this. My hands clinging to his arms and I let the tears flow freely. Silence filled the house as I clung to him and cried.

My uncle appeared at the door, but he gave me a soft smile before closing the door. Giving us privacy, and if Samantha was to wake up and investigate it would be bad if she saw the coffin and the IV.

My tears subsided after a while. Occasionally a hiccup or a silent sob would move through my body, but other than that, it was silent. My father pressed a kiss into my hair and then pulled away silently so he was looking at me. "Bad dream?" I nodded and wiped my wet cheeks with the back of my hands. "Are you willing to talk about it?" he asked, this time I shook my head. I didn't even know how to sort it out in my mind, and trying to speak right now felt like a huge impossibility. He nodded and kissed my forehead as he stood up. "Alright, try to sleep, dragăţă."

"Alright, Papa," I muttered and curled back up underneath the sheets. He closed the lid of the coffin. I heard him fiddle with the blood bag before the door softly click. My head rested on the pillow before I thought back on the dream. I didn't recognize the first person in my dream at all. It was strange. Usually dreams were of people you have seen. However, I have been alive for so many years; it is hard to tell exactly who I have seen in that almost sixteen hundred year life span. My heart ached at the thought of anyone hurting them though, and surprising anger ripped through me at the thought of Valentine being the one who did so. My eyes clamped shut as I tried to banish the thoughts. Valentine would not hurt a fly. Especially if he knew it would hurt me in the process.

Oh! I was cheating on Valentine in that dream. I placed a hand over my mouth. No! I would never. I loved Valentine. He was basically my soul mate!

That dream was just a wild creation of my subconscious. Imagine! Me drinking someone's blood! Or kissing a non vampire, my father's heart would start beating just so he could have a heart attack. Let alone the fact that I was promised to Valentine anyways. It was…just a dream nothing more!

Wait if…

What if that was prediction to something that will come? Maybe I end up falling in love with someone later on in life, and Valentine becomes jealous. Two opposite ends of the Earth means nothing to a vampire. I also never met one male vampire who was attached to their mate except Bram. Even he still flirted with other females, though he would never do anything more. Then again, most female vampires were born in the period where females were property that could be bought, sold, and traded. Therefore, they were allowed only one mate, while males were allowed multiple.

I flicked my phone on and stared at the text message I must have gotten while I was sleeping. That was probably why I had been shivering in the dream. It was from Valentine. Cautiously I read it and my eyes widened slightly. It had to be a coincidence that he had said that he hoped I was dreaming about him. It had to be. Surprise shot through me and I turned my phone off and shoved it away.

* * *

 **A/N** : I'll be updating this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Simply because it is already written, I just need to edit it!

Don't forget to drop a review down below!


	3. Surprise

By morning, the dream had all but left my consciousness. I was feeling healthier with blood coursing through my body, delivering nutrients to every part of my body. I didn't feel happier because of it, but I felt healthier. It felt like I was on a cleansing diet, but I hated it. I hoped that if my father was serious about making me take in blood, then he would attach a blood bag while I was asleep.

I ran a comb through my hair as I stared out at the dark clouds hanging above the town. Another rainy day. Cars were one by one driving out of the cul-de-sac by other teenagers. Not one part of me felt longing to go with them; the school I had been going to back in Europe was an all vampire school. Here? My uncle had explained that it was a school that allowed everyone. I let out a sigh and put my brush down, staring at the mirror. Only my black night gown showing up in the reflection.

A part of me wanted to go to the Wolfs house and apologize for last night. After my hair was tangle free and in its usual pigtails, I was in my closet selecting clothes to wear. A black and pink Victorian styled outfit, with black stockings and bat earrings. High-heels and a parasol completed the look.

I attempted my makeup before heading downstairs. The smell of eggs wafted out and I pushed the kitchen door open. My father sat drinking coffee and looking extremely grumpy. Half of me wanted to go and give him a kiss on the cheek and the other part of me wanted to run away. I couldn't tell if he was grumpy because I had woken him up last night or the fact that he had to get up at normal time because of Samantha. Still, I walked over and kissed his cheek. He grunted, but muttered some words in Romanian.

Samantha looked over at him, a confused look on her face but then returned her gaze to the food in front of her.

I walked to the kitchen and pulled out some fruit. I was in the mood for something sweet after last night. Strawberries, elderberries, blueberries, and apricots. Normally, I would blend them all together with some spinach or something to make sure I got enough iron in the morning, but I was sure that I had enough already in my body.

"Laura!" Samantha scolded, "I was making you breakfast! Your father told me you had a nightmare last night," she brushed my bangs out of my hair as if she were my mother. I tensed slightly and glanced at my father; he shrugged and took a sip of coffee. He told me she meant well in Romanian before pulling a face at the coffee.

"I'm a vegan," I said, glancing at the eggs with a slight disturbed look. I did eat eggs, but a vegan normie didn't eat any animal by-products, while a vegan vampire didn't eat anything that contained blood. So no meats for me. However, living with Samantha would be a problem. She was the only normie in a house full of vampires, and she didn't even realize it.

"Since when?" she asked, looking a little offended.

"I don't like the thought of poor animals being tortured, and I especially don't like it when poor chickens get their young stolen before they are fertilized," I started off telling a story, but staring at the eggs I felt my heart pull at the thought of that truly happen. The poor eggs. Samantha looked down at the eggs with slight sadness. My father sighed and waved towards the door, dismissing me. I quickly headed out of the kitchen and into the living room with my fruit. My ears picked up Samantha ranting in the kitchen about how ungrateful I was. I assumed she thought I just didn't want to eat her food. She would get along with my father's brides; they all had something in common. They hated me.

I barely tasted the fruit as I ate my breakfast. I didn't want to go into the kitchen, fearing that I would irritate Samantha just by my presence. My teeth dug into my lip as I debated on it, risk it or leave the dish outside the kitchen and leave? Either one would probably irritate her, but at least the first one wouldn't make her think I was a lazy slob. With that, I had made up my mind and ventured back into the kitchen. Samantha was sharing the breakfast she had made for me with my father. I placed the dishes into the dishwasher.

"Thank you for thinking to make me breakfast," I added, giving Samantha a smile. "I shouldn't have been so rude before…my nightmare has gotten to me."

Samantha looked startled, and cleared her throat, "Well, you're welcome."

"I need to talk to you later," my father informed me; he didn't betray whether that was a good or bad thing. However, I didn't fail to notice Samantha hiding a smirk as she lifted her coffee cup up to take a drink. He wouldn't talk to me about appearing more human, because there are vegan humans out there, or talk to me about not eating the food she prepared. I wondered if it was going to be something I would really regret hearing.

"Okay, Daddy. I'm going to go over to the Wolfe house to apologize for what happened yesterday. Should I bake them something? Ooo," I laced my fingers together, "What about a shortcake? Should I make a vegan one? No, they aren't vegan…or maybe I should?"

I was about to continue when my father rubbed his face, "I don't know how to make cake, go speak to your uncle."

"I thought your brother works during the night. She shouldn't bother him if he is sleeping, I'll help her make a cake," Samantha insisted, standing up. I smiled at her.

"Thanks! I'll just go and change into something more suitable to wear then."

My father had never once gotten my opinion about who he dates or marries. Which, unfortunately, meant that I had to live with people who didn't quite see eye to eye with me. I prayed that if the talk my father wanted me to have with him was about Samantha it would either be about her leaving or him asking what I thought about all this.

As I climbed the stairs, my uncle stepped out of his room, fully clothed and looking well fed. He nodded at me before taking a step towards the stairs, but paused. I stopped and stared up at him as he frowned. "Draculaura, I think you should really consider talking to your father about things. More importantly about how you feel about all this, he needs a slap in the face."

"I don't want to slap my father-" I started, but he cut me off and waved me up the stairs. I obeyed and he walked me towards my room. Keeping his voice hushed, in case Samantha walked out of the kitchen.

"Not literally, figuratively. This is my home, of course, I welcomed his decision to move here...but I thought it would just be you and him. Not this human. I do not like hiding the fact that we are vampires. I also know that you need to get things off your chest," he gave me a pointed look. Of all my father's siblings, there was no one who was like my Uncle Vlad. He was so different in his behaviours, I wondered if he was truly a Dracula or if he had just been around for so long that they more or less adopted him into the family.

"Nice to have you around the house, kid," he added before heading towards the stairs.

My eyes stared after him before I headed into my room again and sat down on the lid of my coffin. My uncle was right. Samantha would be better off dating a normie and my father would be better off dating someone who was a monster. They were totally not good for each other. I hoped that my father would see the light, and get rid of Samantha.

Er…well I hoped he would dump Samantha. My father's version of 'get rid of' was more along the lines of a criminal offense.

My phone vibrated and I tugged it out. Valentine again. If I did the conversion rate, it would be around 6-7 there right now. I smiled and texted him for around an hour before he was going to hang out with Bram. After I tossed my phone to the side, my father waltzed into my room and closed the door.

I had totally forgotten about baking something for the Wolfe's…oh no. Was he going to be mad? Why hadn't Samantha come up to say anything? I sat up and stared at him as he stood by my door.

"Draculaura-"

"Before you talk, Daddy, I want to speak," I interrupted folding my hands on my lap and staring at him seriously. Might as well distract him if he was mad about me not keeping my promise to bake something with Samantha. I didn't want him to take me as a child right now, like he probably would especially after the dream I had. He nodded his head and closed his mouth. Allowing me to speak. "I want to talk about this," I waved my arms around the room, he frowned and went to open his mouth but I continued, "I mean moving not my room."

"It was for the best," he repeated the words that he said every time I questioned him about things he did that I didn't like. My mouth pressed into a tight line before proceeding.

"Was it really? We have survived in Romania for the last thousand and a half plus years, you alone have lived in Romania for all of your life," I explained, standing up and crossing my arms, "Why move now? Why leave your brides? Why take up a normie lifestyle in your brother's home?"

"We moved because it is best for you, there is more for you here than in Romania. Less political business-"

"That means you'll have to fly back and forth between Romania and here," I said, frowning. I bit my bottom lip, before I said it I hadn't thought of that. He would have many business trips that he would have to do, and that could take him away for weeks or months at a time. My father was always there for me, ever since I was born. There wasn't a time when he had left me alone, either taking me with him if he had to leave, or leaving me with someone he trusted. Like Bram, Gory, or Valentine.

"Which is why I moved here, where your uncle and other monsters can protect you," he moved closer and placed his hands on my shoulders, "Werewolves, Gorgons, Pharaohs. All of them brought here because they can protect each other and most importantly protect you. My wives have been growing irritated at the fact that they barely hold a candle to you in my heart, and I fear that they will hurt you if I leave you alone in Europe. At least here you have people who can help you, there I can count the number of people I trust with one hand and still have fingers left over."

"That doesn't answer my other questions," I said, skipping over the topic of other monsters in the area. That was something that I could deal with later; I have met other monsters before. Most of them harmless however. Ghosts mostly. "Also, you say that you know about your wives' hatred of me, and yet you let them stay so close?"

"Draculaura, you were in no danger while I was near. If they harmed you they wouldn't be spared, you are blood. That is stronger than mere tolerance of the females I call my wives," he murmured pulling me into a tight hug. I stayed still as he hugged me, then wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back. I knew we both needed this. He pulled away after a while, holding onto my shoulders, "Any more questions before I say what I was about to say?"

"Why did you start dating Samantha?" I whispered, looking down at my feet instead of him. There was no change in his posture from what I could see. After a while, he turned and walked to my window and stared out. It was silent. Deafening almost. The type of silence where you could hear everything and everything was too loud. From the sound of our slow almost dead breaths, to the sound of Samantha moving about on the lower floor and my uncle moving about in the kitchen. I knew from the length of the pause that he didn't know why. "Don't do this to her, even if I don't like her, you shouldn't play with her heart."

"What do you except me to do?" he asked turning to look at her, "I flirted with her, wooed her, waiting until she was relaxed enough that I could drink from her and she would willingly become a donor. Except before I could get that far, she wanted to meet you. I knew that the moment you saw her, if I didn't bring her around again you would know I killed her. You would hate me. It is a lie that I have woven myself too far in. If I drained her now too many people would know it was me, and I would be hunted. You would be hunted. As long as we keep what we are quiet, the Van Helsings promised not to harm us," he paused and ran a hand through his hair.

"Dump her," I blurted out, rather bluntly too, "I mean, do it nicely. Apologize, say that you two are too different, and that you wish it could be different but-"

"I can't, Draculaura, I asked her to marry me."


	4. Icy Tears and Hot Coffee

I froze. If I had a heart beat it would've stopped.

He was marrying her?

That was it. This was officially the worst year of my life. I mean Marishka, Aleera, and Verona were bad enough, but marrying a normie? That was so against the rules. Why would he ask her to marry him if she didn't even know that he was a vampire? Oh god, did she know? Why hadn't he told me? Why was he so obsessed over her?

He stepped forwards and reached out to me, but I stepped and out his reach. A sigh escaped his mouth and he backed up.

"Draculaura, don't you want me to be happy?" he asked, softly.

"Aren't you always happy?" I asked, my voice coming forth harsher than I wanted it to. It surprised me into silence. He looked like he was a wounded animal, his eyes dropped to the floor. I wanted to apologize and tell him that if he was truly happy then I would support him.

Instead, all the frustration in my body flooded forth, "Always with another girl, having sex with Marishka, Aleera, and Verona every night back in Romania! You should be filled with joy by now!" I blinked back tears, and took another step back.

"You should really think this through, Father; you say my choices are bad. Then you turn around and break one of the biggest rules in the books."

My father didn't respond at first, and I couldn't meet his eye. I never spoke this harshly with him, but Uncle Vlad was right. I needed to get this off my chest, and for once my father was letting me finish. "Where are you going to live? Uncle Vlad will not put up with it and you know it! That'll bring the Monster Council down on his head."

"We will be moving into another house. Also, I mean we, as in myself, Samantha, and you," he completely ignored my previous words, not gracing me with answers to my questions. The fact that he didn't even react to my questions stung worse than the heat of the sun, or the taste of garlic. It made me feel hollow. Did he not really care about me? Was I just his heir that he was lugging around until such a time when he could make use of me?

When I shook my head, he strode away from me and gave a bitter laugh, "Then where are you going to live? With Vlad? I'm sure one of the oldest bachelors in the world will want his niece living with him for the rest of eternity!"

"I will move out!" I threatened him, and he froze, "I have my own money. I am nearly sixteen hundred, and I know how to survive on my own." He turned around, ready to order me into silence. I saw it in his eyes. He never looked at me that way. Tears burst from my eyes. "I don't know why we are having this conversation; you won't listen anyways." I flew out of my room, grabbing my umbrella and hurrying out the door.

The rain was still thudding down but I could care less. The wind pulled at the umbrella, and soaked my clothes from the waist down. I headed out of the cul-de-sac and into the streets of Salem.

My father would probably come looking for me later, I mean if we had moved here to escape people and keep me safe, then why wouldn't he?

No, I thought bitterly, he didn't care about me. He never did. I was just his child. No matter how much he said that he loved me, I knew he didn't. If he did, why didn't he care more about whether or not I was happy with whom he courted? Why didn't he care to ask me before he married another woman? Weren't his three wives back in Romania enough? Hadn't my mother been good enough? Why wasn't he trying to rekindle his romance with someone he already was married to?

My tears were blurring my vision as I walked. My chest became tight with tears, everything was a mess. I didn't even have my friends with me. If they were here I would be able to face anything that was thrown at me. I just know it. Bram would be the silent supporter, Gory would fix up my makeup and my clothing and tell me that I could take anything on, and Valentine…

Valentine would take me in his arms and kiss away my tears, telling me that I was strong and I was beautiful.

I didn't feel beautiful right now. I felt like a drowned rat.

I sunk onto a bench and stared at my fishnet stockings and the pale skin underneath. As I sat there, I realized how foolish I had been. This was risking my life; a normie could see me, think I have hypothermia and call the ambulance. Then when they came and tried to take me away, they would be able to tell that I was not human. I'd be a hypocrite for what I said to my father.

Oh. What had I done?

I hurt him. Intentionally hurt his feelings. No wonder he was so angry with me…

I was a horrible daughter.

I sobbed into my hands. Everything was so, so wrong! Why had we ever moved here?

Only once before in my life had I ever felt so miserable, and it was all because of my own attitude.

"Laura?"

I raised my head, staring through the pounding rain to see Claude across the street. His hair and jacket becoming absolutely drenched by the rain as he waved at me, and before I could react he was jogging across the street. I quickly wiped at my face, knowing that my mascara was probably running down my face.

"What are you doing out in this rain?" he asked, and then touched my shoulder. His hand was blissfully warm, a stark contrast from the ice rain. His face swirled with even more concern, "You're freezing." I opened my mouth to tell him that I was fine, but he yanked off his jacket and handed it to me. Even his jacket felt warm and dry, and I tugged it about my shoulders. "Come on; let's get you into my car."

His word's left me no room to object, as he took my umbrella and ushered me to my feet. I began to shiver not even halfway to the car, and he shot a look of concern down to me before urging me a bit faster. Claude had left his car running, and when he bundled me inside I was met by a blast of warmth from the heater. I held my icy hands to the vents as he ducked around the car and climbed into the driver's side.

"So, are you going to answer me?" he asked adjusting the temperature of the car up a degree. "You weren't even wearing a jacket."

I bit my lip, staring at my hands. They were paler than usual, and they were beginning to wake up with the warmth, sending almost painful tingles through my flesh.

"It's silly…really, it's nothing."

Claude shook his head, "Yeah and I'm a monkey's uncle," he gave me a look that told me he wasn't picking up what I was laying down. He waved at the coffee in the cup holder, "Drink that, it'll warm you up faster," he barely missed a beat before adding, "Did you break up with a boyfriend? Lose a family member?"

Before I could really stop myself, the words flowed out of my mouth. Telling him about how my father was marrying Samantha and how I felt like my father had picked up his entire life and moved to America for one woman he had barely known for six months. I told him how I was upset with him, and furious with myself.

Throughout it all, he sat in his seat quietly and listened. Not saying anything until my steam ran out and I was left fighting back tears again. He picked up the coffee and handed it to me. I took it with a quiet thank you.

"Does your father really love… _her_?" Claude asked, hesitating at the word 'her'. When I gave a hesitant nod/shrug, he drummed his fingers on the gear shift, "I don't want to play devil's advocate, but have you given her a shot? I mean, my family doesn't like her, but that's…well she insulted my mother's cooking and then followed that up and told my mother that women shouldn't have kids if they can't afford to have them. Which…" he trailed off, his jaw subtly tightening.

Which Claude's family had seven children, and his parents weren't exactly millionaires.

"That's why I can't befriend her," I murmured reaching out and patting his shoulder, "She's too…opinionated, and not in a nice way."

Claude snorted, "Isn't that the truth."

I felt myself smile; at least others weren't blinded by her. My father might've said that he's gotten in too deep to a lie, but I think he was just making up stories in order to justify himself. That would imply that he cared more about others than he truly did.

"Anyways, isn't that against the rules? I mean isn't Samantha a normie?" Claude asked, waving a hand. My eyes shot up to his, and my mouth fell open. "Well, I guess not really a true 'rule'. Plenty of Monsters date and marry normies, but I don't think that _the_ Dracula should be getting involved with normies, what would happen to his rep?"

I stared at him, dumbfounded. The conversation with my father floated back into my mind. Werewolves, Gorgons, and Pharaohs.

Claude and Claudine _Wolf_?

How had I been so blind?

"We aren't," I replied finally, slowly getting over my revelation. I guess I was destined to always meet a werewolf ever couple centuries. "My father screwed up though, and this is the only way he thinks he can fix it..."

"He's stupid then, marriage will just make whatever he messed up worse," Clawd snorted, "Marriage is something I ain't going to even think about until I find a mate."

There was no question now. He was a werewolf.

"Let's get you home," Clawd suggested after a period of comfortable silence.

The ride back was incredibly quick compared to when I had fled. Instead of pulling up to my house, Clawd parked in his driveway. After a moment of awkward silence, he turned to me, "I thought you might not want to actually go home…" he gave me an almost apologetic smile, "Clawdeen's home, so…you could talk to her about all this. I'm sure she'd be able to give you a girl's perspective on this."

I gave him a genuine smile, "Thanks, Clawd."

He returned the smile and ushered me inside the Wolf house. It was the same as the previous night. Samantha might insinuate that Mrs. Wolf was a bad mother for having so many kids, but from the look of the house, the woman completely adored her children. Pictures covered nearly ever flat surface, the walls were decorated with pictures of her family over the years. Not to mention the fact that the entire house was spotless, and yet both of the parents worked a full time job, and had seven children to look after.

The sound of a door opening was followed by hurried steps as Clawdeen burst down the stairs. "Clawd! I told you to stay out late, I wanted-" she paused, sliding to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. Her hair was pulled back in giant rollers, and she was wearing a baggy tank and some threadbare sweats. For a moment she stared at me and then hurried forwards, "Lala, what happened to you!"

I brushed my wet bangs from my face and gave her a weak smile. "I kinda…"

"She was taking a walk and got caught in this downpour," Clawd replied with a wave of his hand, and before I rebuke the statement, Clawdeen stripped me of her brother's jacket and guided me towards the stairs.

"Make her something warm while I lend her some clothes," Clawdeen ordered as she escorted me up the stairs and into the hallways. She pushed open a door and waltzed in. It was clear that half of the room was Clawdeen's while the other was Howleen. Clawdeen's was elegant, all purple, gold's, and patterns. Deep colours that all coordinated well together. There was design sketches hung on a wall beside a desk, fashion designs. I examined them as Clawdeen dug into her closet.

"You vamps don't have much heat right?" Clawdeen called over her shoulder, I suppose all of the kids on the block would know that I was a vampire then. I wondered why my father had deflected Howleen's question earlier. Or was it that only the older teens knew? Or maybe just Clawd and Clawdeen? "Gotta find something warm for you then. Don't want you to catch your death from that rain."

"I can't die," I responded, looked over at her, "I'm dead."

Clawdeen laughed, sending me a grin over her shoulder, "True, true…let's see. You're all about that black and pink…so how about…" she grumbled, "Howleen totally stole my favorite shirt!"

I smiled and sank down onto the bed.

She dug in her closet for a few minutes before pulling out a faded pink shirt and tossed it to me, then went back in and tossed me a pair of black sweats. "They aren't fashionable, but they'll give you heat. Besides, I don't think I have anything of your style. You've got the Lolita gothic look going for you, but on me? I'd look like a creepy old porcelain doll. You wanna take a shower?" she asked leading me out and opening the bathroom door. It looked like it was shared by her entire family, which it probably was. I smiled at her and thanked her softly. "No need, girlfriend, the rents won't care and the brats won't be back till six cus they have clubs. Feel free to use my hairdryer, it's the purple one. Oh!" Clawdeen opened a drawer and brought out a large gold makeup bag and placed it on the table, she dug through it for a second and produced some products. "This mascara is new but I've never used it. Cleo got it for me but she and I aren't friends anymore. This lipstick is one my mom got me, but it doesn't match my skin tone, and everything else is samples that I haven't used. Can vampires get sick from sharing products?"

I shook my head, "Not easily. You would have to be very, very sick."

Clawdeen shrugged a shoulder, "Well, let's not take chances by sharing makeup. You can have whatever you like and just throw the rest out, okay?"

I felt bad for using her things, but I nodded still and was left alone in the bathroom.

I stripped from my clothes. My skin was whiter than it had been this morning, considering I had blood pumping through my body so I looked pinker. My fingernails were blue and I could barely feel them when I took out my ponytails. I heard talking outside before a pair of footsteps went downstairs. It was silent as I folded my clothes and placed them to the side so I could easily take them home later. The door opened slightly and I quickly covered myself up. It slammed shut almost at the same time and a male swore loudly.

"Shit! Sorry, Laura! I didn't know you were in there!" Clawd said before footsteps stormed down the stairs. I felt my entire body grow uncomfortably warm, and I bit my lip. That was mortifying. I forced myself to turn around. Clawd probably saw nothing, right?

My breathing slowly became normal as I started the shower and stepped in. The warm feeling quickly thawed my cool skin and turned it a light shade of pink. When I felt the feeling return to my fingers I stepped out and pulled on the clothes Clawdeen leant me and dried my hair using their hairdryer. After applying my makeup, I headed downstairs.

I hoped Clawd was not downstairs, that was an awkward meeting I could live without. Clawdeen handed me a cup of something warm and covered in whipped cream and marshmallows, smelling like chocolate. I knew what it was, but from the amount of things she added on top, I could barely see what was beneath. I gave her a smile and took a sip, using a napkin to wipe the whipped cream mustache I got from it. She smiled back, led me into the living room, and sat me in front of the television.

Once the TV was blasting, she turned to me. "So, are you going to tell me what really happened?"

I sighed and brought my feet up onto the couch. Clawd was right; I needed the opinion of the situation from someone who was more like me. That way I could see both sides. Get to know my future mother-in-law, or…whatever Clawdeen suggested me to do. So, I told her a more condensed version of what I had told Clawd. I felt more of a weight lift off my shoulders, the more I spoke about it the better I felt.

Back in Romania, I had to control what I said to Gory or Bram. As great as they were, they still had the tendency to gossip and it would work its way to my father's ear. Neither Clawdeen nor Clawd seemed like the type that would go and gossip about something like this.

Clawdeen nodded her head at the end, "Your father should've talked about this with you. If it was my dad?" she shook her head, "I'd give him an earful. I mean, you're living with him. It involves you too. I bet you are still pissed at him."

"Not as much...It was pretty foolish of me to be so childish," I replied staring at the drink as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. "He can marry whomever he wishes."

"You should get a say! She'll be your future mom!" Clawdeen crossed her arms, "That shouldn't fly no matter where you're from!"

"She'll be better than his other three brides," I let out a laugh and huddled into the corner of the sofa. Clawdeen gave me a confused look, but I went on, "Besides, it's not like I'll have to live with her for that long. Only...forty-sixty more years. By then, I bet I'll be living on my own."

Our conversation steered off of marriage and into living on our own. Clawdeen was super pumped for living on her own when she becomes old enough. She was only sixteen after all. It was nice, talking about things that wouldn't even become a possibility until we were old enough, and by then our plans will probably change. When I was with my vampire friends, they would talk about things that happened hundreds of years ago, since they didn't really have future plans.

That was the bad thing about being immortal, after a while you just look at the future and shrug. Times will change, people will change, but if you have everything, what do you have to look forwards to in the future?

When it came time for the triplets to come home, I was leaving. My clothes in a plastic bag and my umbrella in my hand. Clawd came downstairs just before I was leaving; I met his eyes and felt my face flush. Clawdeen either ignored, or didn't notice my blush, and made me promise her that I would come over sometime during the weekend so I could get a fangtastic new hairstyle and some more Americanized clothing.

I was going to a normie school, apparently I couldn't get away with wearing my, as Clawdeen put it, 'gothic Lolita' look if I didn't want to be singled out.

I was looking forwards to going shopping; it was my favourite activity after all.

"Hey, Lala, I'll walk you home," Clawd offered, grabbing another umbrella. "Its dark out-"

Clawdeen rolled her eyes, "She's a vampire, stupid."

Clawd grumbled, and I held up a hand. "Actually, I'm not a fan of the dark."

"See," Clawd waved at her, "Besides, you've got…things in your hair."

Clawdeen threw her hands up, "They are curlers, Clawd, and make sure your back before mom and dad. Or you'll get in trouble."

Clawd guided me out of the house and we headed across the grass towards my house. He held the umbrella above both of us, keeping the chilly rain away from us. This time the silence was awkward, and I was nibbling on my lip the entire way to my house. We climbed the stairs, and he shook the umbrella out and stared at the door.

"If you don't want to go, I'm sure mom and dad wouldn't oppose if you wanted to stay the night," Clawd suggested hesitantly, "I mean…if it would be easier for you."

I shook my head, and smiled, "Thanks, Clawd, but I can't always run away from my problems."

He nodded his head and looked at his shoes before out at the rain, "We're always next door if you need to talk."

"Thanks," I replied softly, and felt an overwhelming urge bubble in my chest. Clawd still didn't look back down at me, and so I quickly leaned up and kissed his cheek. The moment my lips connected, I felt a burst of embarrassment and shame flood through me and I blurted out a quick 'goodnight' before darting into my house and shutting the door.

* * *

 **A/N:** The whole meeting in the rain thing between Clawd and Lala is inspired by Lala and Clawd's diary entries that come with two of their dolls.

Don't forget to drop a review down below~!


	5. Shop Till We Drop

I avoided my father for the next two days. I felt bad about what I had said, but I knew that if I wanted anything to change; I couldn't crawl back to him and apologize. I had to be strong. If it wasn't for Samantha, avoiding my father would be so much easier. However, my father was staying up during the day now. So, I found myself spending more time in my room than I wanted to. Uncle Vlad had replaced my coffin with a bed, and I was finding myself not sleeping as well as normal.

The day before I was going to shop with Clawdeen, I found my way up to the attic. It was super dusty, and I was sneezing left and right. Unable to stop myself. The bats in the belfry squeaked in protest and fluttered around the roof trying to find their way out. I apologized to them, trying to make my way back down when a bat fluttered down and landed on my shoulder.

I instantly fell in love with him, and fed him some fruits in my room. Keeping him a secret from my family. He especially loved chirping and nuzzling my cheek when he landed on my shoulder. I named him Count Fabulous and gave him some old doll clothes to liven him up a bit. Of course he didn't like them at first, tearing them off and fluttering away. I would get upset because I liked those clothes and eventually he would nuzzle my hands to apologize. I prepared him a little bed of old clothes in my closet, the least likely place that my family would go and find him.

A text interrupted our bonding time as I fed him some apricots, and I quickly checked it.

 _Meet outside n 15?_

"Time to go shopping, Fabu!" I grinned at him, feeling truthfully excited about something. The bat squeaked at me and went back to his fruit. I hurried about and searched high and low for something more…normie. Nothing extravagant, but nothing too plain.

Clawdeen hadn't sent me a message demanding why I had kissed her brother's cheek, so I assumed that Clawd hadn't said anything to her yet. Which I was super glad about, but I felt bad as well. Why did I do that? I was dating Valentine…wasn't I? Also, Clawd was Clawdeen's brother? If I wanted to be friends with Clawdeen that meant that I couldn't be having feelings of her brother. Right?

If it was back in the 17th century, Clawdeen would've been ecstatic if her brother was to court me. Not only did that meant that she'd be closer to me, but back then that also meant her social status would increase, and her options to marry would be better. Now, if I were to date her brother – not that I was considering that at all – she would gain nothing from it.

Of course, this was completely hypothetical. I was in love with Valentine.

I settled for a pink skirt, fish net stockings, and a cute white button up shirt. After I blew a kiss towards Count Fabulous and wished him a goodnight I hit the light switch and closed the door.

A ring on the doorbell echoed throughout the house. I hurried down the hall, checking my purse for my wallet, makeup, and phone before starting down the stairs. Samantha had gotten to the door first and was talking to Clawdeen and another girl. Well, she was trying to talk to Clawdeen, but was receiving a cold shoulder. The other girl was replying sweetly, like she had no reason to hate Samantha.

The new girl interrupted whatever Samantha was trying to say by waving enthusiastically. "Whoa, Laura, killer heels! Where did you get them?"

I waved a hand, grabbing my parasol, "One of my friends is way into heels, and she can get her hands on anything. Er…" I trailed off, looking at her inquisitively; Clawdeen stepped forwards and jerked a thumb towards her friend.

"This is Frankie, she lives across the way," Clawdeen explained, "She's new to the school as well. I hope you don't mind that I asked her to tag along."

"More the merrier!" I responded cheerfully, "Nice to meet you, Frankie!"

"Nice to meet you too, Laura," Frankie said, extending her hand. I went to shake her hand but Clawdeen guided me towards the door.

"Ready to go shopping for some Americanized clothing, Lala?" Clawdeen asked, as I hurriedly yanked a coat down from the coat rack. She continued to push me out the door when Samantha stopped us. Frankie was already out the door, and turned to look at us curiously.

"Laura, you don't need the umbrella there isn't any rain," Samantha replied, cheerfully. Smoothly, she reached down and gripped my parasol. She was stronger than she looked as she tugged the umbrella from my grasp. Clawdeen's hands tightened into fists, but before she could react in any other way, I grabbed another parasol by the door and stepped outside.

"I like to be ready for the unexpected," I shot back, ushering Clawdeen outside before shutting the door quickly. I sighed loudly and smiled at the two girls. "Thanks for doing this with me; I would be totes embarrassed if I showed up as a fashion faux pas!"

"Don't mention it! It's an excuse for me to get out and spend my allowance. Let's shop till we drop, girls!" Clawdeen said as we started down the street. "My brother is being an idiot and won't drive us, says he has to take Cleo to the spa for something," she rolled her eyes and growled slightly. I stared at her in curiosity.

"Who's Cleo?" I questioned, hiding under the umbrella from the sunrays. I was wearing like SPF 100 so the sun wouldn't burn my skin, but I knew that after a while it would wear out and then I would be burning up. Literally. Thank god for parasols, jackets, and sunscreen. I'd be toast!

"My ex-best friend and my brother's current squeeze," Clawdeen growled, curling her hands into fists. "Ugh, that…She was just using me to get to my brother!"

I felt my chest tighten slightly. He had a girlfriend?

No! I shouldn't be thinking that about Clawd. I was dating Valentine, let alone the fact that Clawd is Clawdeen's brother.

"Don't be so harsh on Cleo, she means well...er...sometimes..." Frankie defended, and then opened her mouth like she was going to prove it but then closed her mouth.

"God, she is totally all wrong for my brother! If you think of the most high maintenance person you know, double – no triple that and you have Cleo!" she crossed her arms and let out a growl, adding, "I would rather have you date him, honestly, and you're a vampire!" Clawdeen quickly covered her mouth and looked down at me, "No offense."

"None taken," I said with a smile towards her, "but I don't think my father would be too happy about me dating a werewolf," I frowned and stared at the pavement. "Also, a werewolf and a vampire dating? That sounds like a punch line to a really offense joke."

Frankie giggled, and I froze. Oh no. She probably thought we were insane! Or worse- Wait! My father told me that everyone on Radcliffe Way was some sort of monster. If Frankie lived across the way from me, she must be one too!

They both saw me staring and Frankie quickly held her hands up and giggled. "Don't worry, Lala, I'm a monster as well! My father and mother created me just sixteen days ago!" she said with a smile and then reached towards her hand and rubbed a spot. Eventually, the skin colour rubbed off and a mint green colour showed.

"You must go through a lot of concealer," I murmured without thinking. They both giggled and Clawdeen threw her arm around my shoulders.

"You are going to get along with the others great! Which reminds me, we are meeting up with Blue and Abbey at the mall. We all need to look killer, there is a dance coming up and we all need to look fierce," she said as we stopped at a bus stop. "Hopefully you brought change, but if you didn't I'll pay for you to get on."

I reached into my purse, pulled out my wallet, proceeded to open the coin portion. After digging around I held out some coins towards Clawdeen and she separated the money into the right amount of me. I committed the coin amount to memory. I still had a couple months until my 1600th birthday, when I could get my driver's licence officially, and it wasn't like my father or Uncle Vlad would always be willing to drive me places.

We chatted as we waited for the bus, and when it pulled up we climbed on. I still didn't know what to think about this. I had never taken the bus before. My father had enough money that I never needed too, since we always had cars. We sat down near the front so all three of us could sit beside each other. The bus smelt of dirt, sweat, and a nauseating mixture of perfume and cologne.

When we arrived at the mall I was amazed at the size. Back in Romania, my father had a tailor that made our clothes for us, but now we were living across the world from her. There was no way that we could get her to make something for me within the next week Besides, here a custom designed ball gown or dress might be a bit too much. I didn't want to stand out more than I already would.

After all, I was a foreigner, with a funny accent. It didn't help that I was short, and had a heart shaped birthmark on my cheek. I was going to stand out regardless; I just had to try to put a positive swing on everything.

Clawdeen and Frankie hooked their arms with mine and we ventured into the mall. So many stores, so little time. I was disoriented for a few minutes until we arrived at a map and Clawdeen pointed out a few stores that we would go too first after meeting up with Abbey and Blue at the cafeteria.

They led me down the corridors and to a large area full of smells and people. I was engrossed in the map when I looked up and everything hit me all at once. It was confusing and made me dizzy. Clawdeen and Frankie didn't seem to notice and guided me over to two girls standing near the rails looking at the bottom floor.

One was very tall and looked strong and proud. She had long very pale blonde straight hair pulled back by a headband. Blue and pink stripes streaked her hair nicely. She was wearing a black and blue dress with purple heels, and honestly? I had never seen anyone look so intimidating before. Her eyes flashed to mine and she looked at me coolly, before they shifted towards the two girls on my arm and they warmed slightly.

I swallowed thickly, and looked to the other girl. While she was still much taller than me, she was shorter than Clawdeen. Her hair was blonde, which faded into a blue colour. Out of all the girls, she was the only one not wearing a skirt. Instead, she wore baggy pants, a cute tank, and some fingerless gloves. She grinned at me and waved her fingers.

"Lala, meet Abbey," she waved her hand towards the tallest of the group and then waved her hand towards the other girl, "and Blue."

"Nice to meet ya," Blue said with an Australian accent.

"It is a pleasure," Abbey had a thick Russian accent. I smiled at them before Clawdeen nudged Frankie and pointed down to the first floor. A male with red hair was walking around with two others, one of which had the tips of his hair dyed yellow. Frankie's face darkened slightly and Clawdeen whistled. The three guys looked up; the third guy waved and started up the escalator.

"Clawdeen! Oh no, he's coming over," Frankie fumbled with her skirt and adjusted her hair. The third guy wore a hat and sunglasses, even though we were indoors. He gave a lazy wave and opened his mouth about to say something when the redhead pushed the other guy out of the way, whom fell over, grabbed my hand, and kissed it.

"Hey, baby, want me to warm you up?" he said and winked. My mind went through possible meanings before taking my hand out of his and looked at the other guy. Hoping that he would be able to see inside the modern day teenage boy mind well than I could. He simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Dude, don't be a pervert," Sunglasses smacked the redhead before leaning on the railing. "I'm guessing you're Laura, Clawd's new neighbour. The name's Deuce Gorgon, I live beside Frankie."

Gorgon. That was an easy one, Medusa's son. I had met Medusa a long time ago, back when she had decided not to be confined to a cave and ventured out. She had her head covered with a cloth and eyes wrapped with a bandage to keep from turning people.

It would explain Deuce's hat and sunglasses indoors.

"Are you okay?" Frankie asked the other male, reaching forwards and offering her hand to him. His face went a faint shade of pink and his heart quickened. He mumbled something that sounded like a yeah, before accepting her hand.

"And I'm Burns. Heath Burns, what's yours?" Heath asked ignoring Deuce entirely.

"Laura," I replied, before turning to the others, "Do you want to come shopping with us, Deuce, and…?"

"Jackson," the guy replied shyly, he dusted off his jeans, avoiding meeting my eye.

"Aw, baby. Not going to invite us all?" Heath asked, "That's cold. I haven't been this cold since Abbey rejected me."

Abbey held up a hand, "My temperature is perfect. I do not need to be…warmed up," she gave him a cool look.

I giggled, and Heath looked like he was about to deflate before he placed his hand on the railing and winked at me. No one had flirted with me since Valentine started courting me. I felt my cheeks heat up and I looked away. Clawdeen stepped in between Heath and me.

"Alright, alright. Heath, cool down," she flicked her fingers at him. "Us girls are going to go shop till we drop, if you want to carry our bags then join us. If you're just going to drool over us, then leave."

Deuce dropped his hand on Heath's shoulder with enough force to nearly topple the red head over. "We're here to check out the new video games, as much as we'd love to carry your things, we've got a mission."

"Uh, yeah we've heard there is a new-"

"Don't mean to be rude, Jackson, but we've got some shopping to do," Clawdeen interrupted, "You guys have fun being boys."

We made our departure from the boys then. We worked our way through almost every store in the mall. The amount of bags I carried just grew and grew. I tried on so many clothes, and after getting the approval of the girls, I purchased them. My closet seriously needed a makeover for school.

I was drowning my emotions by spending money, I knew that, and gladly accepted that it was my fate. Sure, my father might be a bit irritated when he sees my credit bill, but…he spent more on a yacht he has never been on, at least I'm using what I purchased!

Halfway, I began to notice a subtle jealousy that the girls seemed to be emitting. The others hadn't even come close to purchasing half of the amount I did, and they put down more items than they bought. I felt bad and didn't know what to do. After being alive for so long, money just accumulated and my family had its hands in nearly every business in Romania, let alone Europe.

However, the girls didn't have the endless funds as I did. Immediately after I noticed this, I stopped purchasing things. I didn't want to seem like I was rubbing my wealth in their face, especially after they had been so kind to me. Instead, I helped them!

"Lala, why didn't you buy that cute dress?" Frankie asked as the others were trying things on, she had a few bags of things she had purchased. A super fierce dress with edgy lines and in contrasting colours, shoes, and a bunch of makeup and hair accessories.

"I have enough, besides you guys spent most of your time looking at things for me, I shouldn't be selfish!" I defended, not telling her the full answer. She gave me a look before patting my shoulder.

"You never have enough clothes," she said with a shake of her head, "the difference between is, is that you have a lot of money and a lot of shopping to do since you have nothing from…"

"This decade?" I asked in good humor, Frankie nodded her head, relieved that she didn't have to offend me herself.

"We have a lot of clothes we can mix and match to make ourselves look fabulous! My parents made sure that I had plenty of clothes to wear, and I've only been alive 16 days now. We don't really need to shop," Frankie explained, waving at the assortment of bags at our feet.

I smiled and gave her a one armed hug before the others emerged with their choice of clothing, as they went to pay for them, Blue checked her watch.

"Hey gals, we should be heading over to the spa," she informed us, and looked at the bags of clothes we all held. That might be a problem at the Salon.

"I'll call my uncle and ask if he can pick up our bags, after our spa time you can stop off at my house to grab your bags," I suggested and pulled out my cell phone. The girls smiled largely, relieved that they didn't have to carry around the bags while we headed over to the spa.

It took some convincing, but eventually Uncle Vlad agreed to pick up our bags and we headed towards the parking lot. As we waited, Clawdeen filled me in on the current gossip at school. Who was with whom, areas of the school to avoid, and who was on the major 'do not talk to' list. Cleo was on the top of it.

Uncle Vlad pulled up, but didn't step out of the car. I knew that he was just trying to save himself from using an umbrella since the sun was at its highest. He rolled down the pitch black windows and smiled at me. "When you said bags, I thought you meant at the most ten."

"Then you must never have been shopping with your niece," Clawdeen teased, opening the backdoor and tossing her own bags into the back before helping me with mine. "If she had enough time, I'm sure she would'a bought out the entire mall."

I flushed pink and the other girls laughed, all in good humor.

"I'll pick you girls up after your spa date," he said and waved goodbye before speeding off. I grinned at the girls and they smiled back at me.

"Spa time!" Clawdeen and Frankie shouted and started heading off. I followed after them obediently with Abbey and Blue beside me.

^v^ ^v^

The spa was super high end. When we entered they made us wait, and by fifteen minutes Clawdeen was starting to get impatient. People who arrived after us were being allowed to enter before us. I stood up, walked over to the counter, and waited until the lady looked up at me.

"Yes?" she asked lazily as she paused reading her magazine.

"I believe me and my friends have an appointment," I said smiling sweetly at her. She looked at her list.

"Name?" she asked looking slightly irritated.

"Dracula," I replied, smiling. Her eyes flickered up to me and a brief fear shot through her eyes. She stood up looking flustered.

"You must be Dracula's daughter, I am so sorry I didn't recognize you!" the woman said and hurried around the counter and air kissed me. I returned the gesture.

"No need to apologize, I should've told you that we had reservations the first time. I've sometimes got bats for brains," I laughed and she ushered us into the back room where she told us to change into more comfortable clothes and then left. It wasn't the first time that I had ever used my father's influence. I still felt guilty whenever I did it though, the fact that the people in the shop went from being calm and relaxed to panicking over the fact that Dracula's daughter was in their store always made me feel bad.

The girls stared at me, some in awe and some in confusion. I felt my face heat and I looked away. I knew they had been expecting just pedicures, manicures, haircuts and colouring but if I was going to go to school there was no way that I was going to go with pores this big.

" I'll pay for you guys since my father has discount here and you guys were so kind and helpful today." I replied as we changed into the pink robes and took our makeup off so we could get facials.

"Draculaura! That's like five hundred per person! That is way too much!" Clawdeen argued putting her hands onto her hips, but she was already changed. I supposed she didn't realize that we were getting the full treatment.

"With my father's discount it's like one twenty five per person," I replied not understanding what was wrong.

"Still, way too much! We just met for god's sake!" Clawdeen said, crossing her arms. When I turned to look at her, I saw that instead of looking angry, she looked completely guilty. I felt bad, and frowned.

"Deenie, I'm sorry…I just...I feel so bad for causing so much fuss both times we met, and then today I bought so much stuff for myself and barely helped any of you," I urged clasping my hands in front of me before smiling, "Besides, full coverage! Haircuts, styling, waxing, message, pedicure, manicure, and facials! We'll have everyone staring on Monday!"

The others waited on baited breath. I knew that if she didn't accept it, the others wouldn't either. She looked hesitant before she finally smiled, "Alright, but I owe you like 10 for this."The other girls giggled and cheered, happy that Clawdeen had accepted.

* * *

 **A/N:** Almost forgot to upload this! Thanks for all the kind reviews so far guys!

Chibi-Chanx - The dolls come with little diary entries. The two I was talking about are Clawd and Draculaura's 'School's Out' Diaries from the dolls that are packaged together!

Don't forget to leave me a review~!


	6. Girl Talk

The spa day was amazing. It was the first one I had ever had in this century, and I felt so pampered by the end of it. Frankie had suggested that I give my hair a pop of colour, and the hair stylist agreed whole heartedly. I end up picking a bright pink colour, which my hair stylist added in randomly. I had a bright pink French manicure with black sparkles. My skin felt so smooth and silky to the touch and my muscles were all relaxed. The girls all looked very refreshed, all looking fangtastic!

Clawdeen hugged me tightly after we had donned our normal clothing. "Girl, you are the best! Getting a wax at a salon is so much easier than doing it at home. My fur grows so fast!"

The others giggled, and I smiled and returned the hug. This was fun. As much as I loved my friends from Romania, I felt as if I was just a regular teenage girl again here. Back home I would be treated like a children – I am only fifteen hundred and ninety-nine years old – but then expected to act like an adult at the drop of a hat. So frustrating.

As we exited the change room and back into the foyer, I bumped into someone and I stumbled. Whomever it was helped me gain balance again. "I'm so sorry-," I looked up hoping they weren't mad, and met Clawd's eyes. My face heated slightly and I stepped away from him. Clawdeen's words from early came to mind. He went to the spa with his girlfriend. Before he could say anything I ducked my head and head quickly over to the counter. I hoped the others hadn't noticed my blush that was something I didn't want to explain to them.

As we left, I could hear the woman exhale loudly when she realized she was no longer in any danger of angering my father. I felt bad; I had terrified the woman into giving us an appointment. Vampires who lived in the New World never had to fear the vampire council or society from Europe; we just never looked this way unless someone was acting up. Now, my father was living amongst the vampires who hadn't thought they needed to fear him anymore, but the memories of his earlier reign flooded back into them and they remembered. Those who didn't were soon told. I knew when I went to school that any vampires there would give me a wide berth.

My uncle was waiting for us when as we headed towards the parking lot. We all piled in and he drove us back to my house so they could pick up their things. We chattered all the way up the steps and began sorting through the plethora of bags by the door. It didn't take long for all of the girls to sort through what was there's and what wasn't. They all had unique styles. Blue had a surfer girl thing going for her, Abbey was primarily furs and sparkles, Frankie had a lot of electric colours and cuts, and Clawdeen was all about the highest fashion and darker colours.

As they left, Blue and Abbey gave me their numbers so I could text them my classes. Abbey told me that she didn't live on this block, but walking would be no problem for her when I offered to see if my Uncle or Father would be willing to drive her. Abbey, Blue, and Frankie all thanked me for the spa trip; Frankie gave me a hug that left my hair a bit frizzy, before they started down the steps of my house. I waved at them, and thanked them for an awesome shopping trip before turning to Clawdeen.

"Do you want to meet my pet?" I asked, earning a confused look from my uncle. Clawdeen grinned and nodded, I ignored my Uncle's question of when I got a pet and led my new friend upstairs.

Thankfully, it was getting darker so I was sure that Count Fabulous would be waking up any moment. "I don't know if he's friendly to visitors yet," I admitted and waved for her to follow me into my closet.

"Fabu!" I called out; walking over to the small lump of clothes he called a bed. I picked up an old shirt, but he wasn't underneath. I frowned and looked at the ceiling. Was he ignoring his bed? "Want to help me find him?" I turned around, and saw Clawdeen staring at my clothes with a wide eyed expression. "Clawdeen?"

"Oh. My. Ghoul."

"What? Do you see him?" I twisted around trying to spot him, did he get out? Oh. What if I never find him again? He was so cute and I loved him…

"This is your closet?" she demanded, twirling in a circle. "I would kill to have a closet this size!" she hurried and pulled a dress from the rack and held it up to her. It was a dress from the early 19th century. "You could donate these to a museum, no offense."

I giggled, "I know, there's retro chic and then there's just retro."

She put the dress back on the rack and ran her hands over the varying fabrics and styles. "Oh man, how are some of these still holding up? This one is a toga!" she pulled out the draping fabric that was discoloured after so long. I pressed my hands into my face, embarrassed. I couldn't believe I still had that. "I could just look at everything in here all day long."

Another giggle, "How long are you able to stay over?"

Clawdeen turned around, eyes wide. "Are you for real?"

"Totes! I need to make room for my new purchases anyways, and some of these I've had for centuries," I said gesturing to the toga in her hands. She rushed over to me and pulled me into a hug.

"You are the best! Where should we start? Do you have it organized?" she ranted looking around again. I took the toga from her and held it up.

"Of course, by century and by colour!" I batted my eyes. "This was the height of fashion. Though, back when it was fashionable it was a pure white colour, and I was a bit smaller…over here is the rest of the clothing I had when I still lived in Rome."

Over the course of the next two hours, I tried on over half of the clothing I owned. Clawdeen either complimented my outfit choices over the past fifteen hundred years, or she laughed and then quickly apologized. I had the same reaction, and we ended up dissolving into laughter as I strutted around in clothing that was centuries old.

Half of what I tried on went into a pile to be sent to a museum, and the other half went into a pile to be thrown out. Either they were too moth eaten, or they were such an obscure fashion choice of that time period that no museum would've taken them in anyways.

At some point, the fashion show stopped, and we ended up lying on my bed, wearing mismatched pieces of clothing and laughing at how silly we looked. I missed this. I missed just being able to act like a teenager. I was so happy. Maybe my father wasn't all wrong. Moving here wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to me.

Clawdeen sat up and stretched. When she didn't move, I looked up and saw her looking at the pictures on my nightstand. She noticed me watching her, and pointed to a picture with a raise of her eyebrow. I giggled and shook my head.

"Why have pictures if you can't see yourself in them?" she asked, I was about to answer when Count Fabulous chirped and flew down from my roof and landed on my lap. Clawdeen let out a startled yelp and shrunk away from him. I smiled and stroked the top of Fabu's head with the back of my finger.

"Count Fabulous, meet Clawdeen. Clawdeen, meet Count Fabulous. My pet bat," I scooped Fabu up and presented him to the werewolf. Clawdeen exhaled and gave the little creature a smile, petting him with a finger.

"Sorry, little guy, didn't know who you were," Clawdeen apologized, and C.F chirped and nuzzled her finger.

"I can see my clothes, and I know who's who by what they are wearing." I explained, picking up a picture, "This is a picture of my father and me once cameras became popular. They were sooo boring to sit for, but they were much faster than having to sit still for a painting. Those could take hours, and that's just for the sketch!"

Clawdeen laughed, and proceeded to ask me more about all the different photos. Who was who, what time period it was. She fell silent after I finished answering, I stroked Count Fabulous' tiny head, and he curled into my hand and fell asleep. After a few moments of silence, she picked up one of the pictures and pointed at the clothing beside me. "Who's this?"

"That's my boyfriend, well technically he's not my boyfriend anymore since he lives back in Romania, but it's...well complicated," I said with a smile and took the picture from her. "It's the first photo of us together," I said running my hand over the picture glass fondly. "We have a painting of the two of us together somewhere at our mansion back in Romania…but we didn't bring it with us."

"Wait, if you have paintings of yourself, how come you haven't ever seen yourself?" Clawdeen help up a hand. "Lala, a painting is the same thing as a photograph."

I shrugged my shoulder, "That's the artist's interpretation of me, making me look older and more mature and more elegant so that my father will be pleased and perhaps pay him more for his time. Also, we'd have to have anything that was too telling about us removed, like in all the paintings of me, my birth mark isn't in them. A photograph isn't biased; there is no button to magically make flaws disappear.

"Whoa, that seems like a lot of effort for a single photo. Still, I bet it was worth it. Spending hours sitting beside someone you love, now that's romantic," Clawdeen nudged me, "I can barely keep still for an hour before I want to go do something else. How long have you and your boyfriend been together?"

"We've been together for just over four hundred years now," I replied, and smiled at her, "He created Valentine's Day for me, you know."

Her eyebrows rose, "Really?"

"Yes, he is the most romantic guy ever," I flipped onto my back, and proceeded to tell her the story of how we met. How the sparks flew instantly, and how he chose me out of everyone at the ball. At the end, I sat up and smiled dreamily, then sighed, "But then my father met Samantha while on a business trip and we ended up moving here."

Clawdeen made a sound at the back of her throat, "When your father first introduced everyone to her, she nearly insulted every single one of us! After he and Samantha left, Deuce's mom burst into tears. I have never seen Maddy cry like that!"

"What did she say?"

"Well, Ms. Gorgon always wears sunglasses and either a wig or a wrapping for her head. Samantha asked her if she's always worn those, she said yes, and then Samantha muttered it was no wonder that Ms. Gorgon was single! Medusa and her husband had just recently divorced, and at the time Deuce was living with his father. Could you just imagine how upset Medusa was already, and then Samantha just went and made Medusa feel like it was all her fault already?"

My heart went out to Medusa. The woman I had met years ago was incredibly shy and wary of strangers; she was the sweetest as well once she trusted you. The fact that Samantha had been so cruel to her made me angry. Especially after a hard time in the woman's life.

"Ugh," I scowled, "I was going to try Clawd's suggestion to get use to her, but now? No way."

"Speaking of Clawd, I can't believe he actually took Cleo to the same spa as us," Clawdeen growled, "I told him not to, but he doesn't understand why I'm so hung up about this."

I didn't want to get into the conversation of her brothers romantic life. As much as I wanted to support her, I felt awkward. Instead I smoothly changed the subject towards her romantic life, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Clawdeen laughed, "No guy is man enough for me. Everyone who has taken an interest in me so far has either wanted to be the alpha in our relationship, or has wanted me to control them." She rolled her eyes, "I already have enough alpha's in my life, and I don't wanna be controlling someone I'm suppose to love, yaknow?"

I sighed, "Vampire and werewolf relationships aren't so different after all."

"Why?"

"Vampire's are still stuck in the last decade, they expect females to be docile and wait for a man to come and save them, and then get angry when a female doesn't need saving," I explained, Valentine never stepped in the way when I had something to say, but at the same time would shush me if I was about to say something in front of someone of high important that he knew was going to upset them. It was about balance, I suppose. Clawdeen let out a growl.

"Ugh. I swear, if I could just swear off men forever," she rolled her eyes, "but my mother is way in the past. She still wants me and Howleen to get married and each have a litter of pups ourselves. I've got dreams; I want to go study fashion in Paris! Not stay in Salem and take care of a bunch of snot nosed kids."

"Wanting to be successful isn't a bad thing," I responded, touching her shoulder, "I'm sure your mother will be plenty proud of you if you chose to do what you want."

Clawdeen fell silent for a while and then nodded, "They would be. They're scraping money together right now to pay for Clawd's university, which is why he's part of the football team, if he gets sponsored our parents don't have to pay for schooling."

I felt like such a spoiled brat. All day long I had been throwing money left and right like it grew on trees. There was a difference between paying to pamper your friends, but I knew if I even thought about suggesting to help pay for schooling, Clawdeen would've torn strips out of my back. As much as I wanted to help, I knew I couldn't without risk of offending the Wolf family.

"Oh well," Clawdeen shook her hair, "Once Clawd get's his sponsorship, the money they were saving up for him will go to me, and I can study fashion here. Make it big, and then travel to Paris to study under the greats!" she stared at the roof proudly, then slid her gaze to me, "What do you want to do when you're older?"

I wanted to tease her that I was already old, but instead I answered seriously. "I want to become an author, or journalist. I'm a huge fan of poetry and I've been writing for so long. Though, more likely I'll end up taking over my father's buisness."

"What does your father even do?"

"He owns and operates a bunch of hospitals. That's how he's able to get blood bags, and medical equiptment for when I need infusions," I explained, and then added, "He also owns a bunch of hotels, vacation homes, that sort of thing. I'm pretty sure he also has some secret buisness that he's a silent partner to. He's been alive for so long after all."

Clawdeen sighed, "That must be nice. You get to travel a lot then?" I nodded, and she continued, "Once my parents came from Europe around the Werewolf-Vampire war they have only left a few times and only for a weekend to do some buisness with other packs in Europe. Anyways, let's not talk about our parents. I'm pretty sure my mum wants me to take over the Bed and Breakfast when I graduate, and I don't even want to think about that."

I nodded my head, and before I knew it we were spending an hour talking of nothing but boys and everything that was going on at school. Sooner than later she had to go home, but I was feeling incredibly happy when she left. She had her bags full of clothes from our shopping trip, and some items from my closet she wanted, and waved back at my before dissappearing into her house.

I definitely was warming up to Salem and the people here.

* * *

 **A/N:** Don't forget to drop a review down below!


	7. The First Day Of School

I was so nervous. After all this was my first day of school where there would be other monsters, and humans. Would it be any different than going to a school that had just Vampires? Would everyone like me? Thankfully, I had already made friends prior to going. Clawdeen said she'd show me the school and if I had classes with anyone, she'd make sure they walked me to the proper spot so I wasn't late for anything. Nothing was more embarrassing than showing up late on your first day.

Speaking of, Clawd said he would drive me to school, if I could squeeze in with the triplets. Clawdeen had commented afterwards that Cleo was never invited for a ride in the morning. Ever. I had blushed and distracted us both from that fact.

I checked my reflection in the mirror; all I could see were my clothes. Honestly, I didn't know why I bothered anymore. Though, my outfit today was super cute! I applied my makeup, and then reapplied my makeup, and then gave up and did it once more. That should be fine…

I kept my phone turned off after Valentine had texted me, except for when I needed to text Clawdeen before we went to the mall and to call my Uncle. I was still super nervous about his message and kept ignoring it. However, by keeping my phone off, and ignoring incoming texts when it wasn't, my phone vibrated over and over as one after another texts came in. It was annoying. Valentine, Bram, Gory, Clawdeen, Blue, Frankie, and Abbey had all texted me. Leaving over twenty texts! I did feel guilty, reading Bram and Gory's texts, they were freaking out because they thought I was deader than dead.

Taking a deep breath, I responded to everyone's – minus Valentine's – texts before heading out of my room. My father was waiting for me in the foyer, and I kissed his cheek good morning.

"I have some business to sort through this morning," he explained to me, taking my arm and leading me towards the kitchen. "Otherwise I would take you to school and make sure everything was okay myself. However, I took the liberty of making sure you already have a school ID," he handed me a card with my picture on it. My mouth dropped. "A vampire created an…app? On the phone that captures a vampire's picture," he explained, and then waved towards the files on the counter. "These all are the official papers, transfers, blah, blah, blah."

Swallowing down a giggle, he always asked how people were convinced that he always spoke in a heavy Transylvanian accent and said 'bluh de bluh' and yet he said 'blah, blah, blah' a lot. I tucked the student card into my wallet, and looked up at him.

He was staring down at me with concern. "Do you want a ride to school? I can reschedule the meeting to later?"

Samantha entered the kitchen, "Reschedule?" she asked, "Darling, you've been stressing about that meeting for days."

There was no way that she didn't notice the way his face hardened at her and he straightened, but she walked over to me and tsked. "Laura, you're makeup is all messed up. Here," she grabbed a Kleenex and before I could object she was wiping my face with it. My father waited quietly until she was finished.

He switched over to Romanian, "If she was a vampire she would not question me."

"Daddy," I turned to him, "Don't worry about me, Clawd's giving me a ride to school. You just worry about your meeting. Whatever it is."

"If you need me, just call me," my father said, squeezing my shoulder, and then switched back to Romanian, "Do you want to talk about this after school?" he gestured subtly towards his fiancé.

I swallowed thickly and glanced towards Samantha. "Yes."

He nodded, kissed my forehead and walked me to the door. As we reached the door, he asked me if I took my iron pills, and then offered to pack some blood in a tomato juice can. I gave him a look and he held up his hands. "Just an offer."

I glanced outside as a quite rumble of distant thunder hit my ears. Clawd was placing the car cover into the trunk and glancing up to the sky. I bit my lip and was glad that I didn't have a heartbeat, otherwise my father would've totes heard my heart skip a beat.

How was I going to get over this? He was so…I resisted the urge to sigh. Clawd ran a hand through his hair and covertly glanced over to my house.

"If the dog is driving you, you better leave," my father suggested, opening the door. "I'll walk you over-"

"No!" I said quickly, "Daddy, Clawdeen and their siblings are going to be in the car as well. You have to get to your meeting anyways." I moved quickly to the front door and gathered my things up. My father picked up his briefcase, kissed Samantha quickly and then guided me out of the house. It was overcast and neither of us needed an umbrella.

My father walked over to his car and Clawd held up a hand. "Hey Mr. D."

The look he got back was a withering look, "Hello, Claude."

Under his breath, he added something in Latin before getting into the car. I knew he said something derogatory but didn't want me to hear it. I still gave him a sour look through the black tinted windows. Clawd stared after the car as I walked over.

"No offense, Draculaura, but your father still gives me the creeps," a shiver ran through him, and I giggled.

Howleen shot out of the house and nearly dove into the car, just as Clawdeen came storming out of the house, growling loudly. "Where is she?"

"Who?" I asked, innocently, tucking my hands behind my hands. Clawd leaned against the backdoor subtly, blocking her view inside of the car.

"Howleen! She stole my favourite leather jacket that I was going to wear today!" she growled, crossing her arms and looking around. Clawd made a noise and waved towards the house.

"She darted around back, she probably tricked you by slipping in the backdoor," he said, that sent Clawdeen on a chase after Howleen. I glanced over at Clawd and walked over to him; he opened the back door and sighed. "You owe me big time for covering for you, she'll use my back to sharpen her claws," he muttered as Howleen sat up and dusted off her shorts.

"Ya didn't have ta cover for me," she said crossing her legs and glancing over at me, "I'll thank her though," she stuck her tongue out at her brother and stood up.

"Clawdeen!" Clawd called, and Howleen growled and dove back into the car. Clawdeen opened the door and glared at her brother.

"What?"

"You just missed her, she came out to toss her things in the car before heading into the back again," he said with a shake of her head, "You are slow today." Clawdeen growled and turned on her heel and headed back inside. I giggled and shook my head. Clawd chuckled and leaned against the car. He glanced at me, and then looked again. "Are those the clothes you got the other day?" he asked, when I nodded he added, "You look cute." My face heated up and I looked sharply towards the house, hoping he didn't notice. When I glanced back at him after my face cooled, his face was fading from a pink colour as well.

"Thank you," I said softly, "You look nice today, as well."

My phone vibrated and I pulled it out of my pocket. Valentine. I ignored it and shoved it back into my pocket.

"Aren't you going to even look at that?"Clawd asked as Howleen snuck out of the car and headed back into the house. I shook my head, "Why? Someone bothering you?"

"A friend from Romania," I said trailing off before adding, "He said something that I couldn't really...wrap my head around," I explained, knowing how awkward I must have sounded. He stared at me for a while before starching his cheek.

"Did he say he loves you or something'?" he asked seeming to relax against the car. Almost as if he was settling in to listen to me talk. I blinked and sighed.

"I wish he would've said that," I muttered and shook my head. Clawd opened the passenger seat and waved towards it, I raised my eyebrow and sat down. He leaned against the open door, alternating occasionally between looking at me and at the door.

"Did he break up with you then?"

"Nope, it's…weird and a bit long to explain…if I understood the text right," I muttered staring at the door, ready to drop the conversation if Clawdeen stormed outside.

"Hm, so from what you've told me, he didn't say he loves you, and he didn't break up with you, so I'm guessing he was or is your boyfriend. Thrown in some difficult vampire thing. Your life is basically a drama my sisters like to watch for entertainment," Clawd rolled his eyes and I stared up at him.

"Except most of those dramas are scripted and my life isn't scripted. If it was I would be living a different life than I am now," I replied smiling up at him. He glanced down, a look of concern on his eyes, but seeing my smile, it melted and he smiled back.

"Wouldn't we all?" he said and straightened as his siblings came out. "You can sit in the front, I'll shove Clawdeen in the back with her siblings," he waved slightly so I tucked my legs into the car and he closed the door. I smiled and mouthed thank you through the door and he smiled back.

The triplets dove into the back of the car, squeezing together. Clawdeen saw me and complained before climbing in beside Rocks. I apologized, but Clawdeen waved it off. "You are the guest."

"How come she gets the front?" Howleen complained as Clawd pulled out of the driveway.

"Because, the difference between her and you guys is that she isn't one of my siblings," he said as he began to drive to the schools. Clawdeen asked me the classes I had, and soon I knew which classes had my friends. I had first period gym with Clawdeen, second period Social with Blue, last period English with Frankie and Abbey. However, I had third period by myself. Home Ec. It was not really something I would have chosen, but my grandmother demanded my father that if I was going to do human school, I had to take Home Ec. Always traditional. A woman should know how to prepare for her life after school when she became a mother and took care of the home.

Merston High was very plain. It was awesome. My last high school was very old fashioned and we had to wear very old-fashioned uniforms – don't get me wrong the dresses were to die for, but…well it was nice to wear something that was completely your style.

It started to rain after we dropped off the triplets to their school, and it was thundering when we arrived at our high school. Clawd dropped us off at the entrance. I got out of the car and Clawdeen took my arm and grinned at me. "Ready to make your grand entrance?" she asked as we waved at Clawd, who drove off to find a parking spot.

"Can't that wait until lunch? I need to drop some papers off at the office," I said, pulling out the file that my father had given to me. She groaned and said fine. "Alright, where is the office?" I asked as we stepped inside the school.

"Over here, I'll escort you, because quite honestly, girl, you'll get lost so quickly," she told me with a grin. That grin didn't offer me any comfort. We headed into the office and after around fifteen minutes of talking to the principal I was sent on my way with a map of the school, as well as an actual schedule, and some textbooks that I was going to need for Social and English. The bell rang and all the normies and possible monsters scattered to their classes. I followed Clawdeen into the gym.

Since I didn't have a gym uniform yet, the gym teacher just sent me to sit on the bleachers and watch. I didn't object. I wasn't a big fan of playing sports, not as much as Clawdeen anyway. Basketball was not my favourite sport, to play. I didn't mind watching it. I cheered for Clawdeen's team – who won by six points thanks to her. After she came out of the changing room I hugged her and smiled. "Good job!" I cheered and followed her out of the gym.

"Thanks," she grinned, and pointed down the hall. Blue waved at us and headed over, "I gotta get to Biology, see you at lunch."

"See you!" I called, waving as Clawdeen walked off. "So, where is Social?"

"Just down the hall, after class I'll lend you my notes so you can get caught up," Blue promised, linking our arms together, "So let's stop flapping our gills, an' get to class before the bell rings."

As we started towards the class, I bumped into someone, and nearly dropped my books. Before I could apologize, the person twisted around.

"Watch where you are going!" the girl snapped, she placed her fists on her hips and glared down at me. I held my hands up. "Do you even know who I am?"

"I'm sorry!" I said apologizing quickly; I was used to dealing with people like this from being in an all vampire school. Though, Gory was with me during that experience.

"You should be! Bumping into me. I dropped my compact!" she exclaimed reaching down and picking up the circular makeup disc. I smiled apologetically.

"It doesn't look damaged," I tried to get her to see the bright side, but she shoved it into her bag.

"Who are you?" she demanded, more than asked.

"Laura Dracul," I introduced, looking up at her. I quickly identified her as Egyptian, maybe my age, and extremely fond of herself. If she didn't have a heartbeat she could've been the splitting image of a vampire. She pointed at me, eyes narrowing.

"Well, Laura, you just made a very, very bad enemy-"

"Cleo! I see you've met Laura, she's the new girl on our block," Clawd interrupted, patting my shoulder. Deuce and Jackson were behind him, Deuce gave me a smile and I nodded. He grinned down at her and it clicked. This was Clawd's girlfriend. The fact that Clawd was acknowledging that he knew me seemed to make her even more irritated.

Blue stepped forwards and touched my arm. "Lala, we need to get to Social," she tugged slightly.

"Yes, Lala, go run off to class," Cleo sneered crossing her arms. "With…what's your name again?"

I looked at Blue, who was averting her eyes from Cleo. I looked over at Cleo again. Clawd said 'the new girl on our block', and everyone on our block was some sort of Monster. Cleo. Cleopatra. Clawd opened his mouth to say something, but I muttered something in Egyptian to see if I was right in my theory.

"Do you know who you are talking too?" she hissed, stabbing a manicure finger at me, "How dare you say that to me!"

"I'm just teasing," I waved my hands. "You're Cleo, Clawd's boyfriend. Though…no one's really said much more than that."

"How could you not know of me? Why weren't you informed that I am the most popular girl in school? Julia!" Cleo hissed turning to a girl I didn't notice before. She looked up almost lazily at Cleo. "All gossip spread should be spread to everyone, including the new people! They need to know their place!"

"I'm sorry," I said, looking at Cleo, "I didn't realize I was below you," I tilted my head slightly, "Though, you don't need to worry about me bothering you. I'll just stick amongst my own friends," I waved towards Blue and then smiled at Deuce and Jackson. Her eyes followed towards the other two.

Her eyes widened and she turned towards me, "Just watch how fast they'll ditch you once I declare you to be a loser."

"Cleo, stop," Clawd spoke sharply, and Cleo looked up at him. Mouth widening.

"You-"

The bell rang again, signalling we were all late for class. "Oops!" I frowned and turned to Blue, "I'm sorry, I should've listened to you. Let's go, bye guys! Nice to meet you, Julia!" I waved and grabbed Blue's arm and tugged her away from them.

"Not many people can stand up to Cleo without being declared the biggest loser, good on ya mate" Blue whispered later when we were working on an assignment with partners later.

"It's probably because Clawd and Deuce were there. Why was she so surprised that I knew Deuce? Is he popular or something?" I asked glancing over at her and writing down an answer, mostly from memory than actually finding the answer.

"Deuce? Yeah, he is one of Clawd's best mates. Cleo use to have a thing for Deuce, an' everyone knew it," Blue looked at my answer before copying it. I let her, not caring, I was like the textbook, but more accurate. "Clawd is part of the basketball team, captain of the football team, and just a general good bloke. This makes him popular. Anyone who hangs out with him frequently is dubbed popular as well."

"What about you and Clawdeen?" I asked finishing the assignment and tilted my paper towards her so she could see my answers better.

"Ha," she said bitterly, "I'm from down under and Cleo didn't like how I talked when she first met me and dubbed me a loser, made me feel like a fish outta water," she shook her head and sighed, "Clawdeen is one of my best mates, and while Clawdeen and Cleo were friends I was considered 'alright' but once Clawdeen called out Cleo for dating her brother…whew things got messy. Since Cleo is the most popular gal in school, she shoved Clawdeen down to my level since we were hanging out together."

"That's so mean!" I muttered looking at Blue, "You are a great girl, nice and stylish; you shouldn't be dubbed a loser because of how you speak. I have a Romanian accent, I sound ten times funnier than anyone in this school because of how heavy it is sometimes," I admitted with a fangy smile. Blue let out a laugh. "I'm serious, in the morning my soon-to-be step-mother can't understand me half of the time."

We laughed, finished our assignment and handed it in.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for all the fabulous reviews guys! Also, yes Draculaura knows a lot of languages. I mean, her first language is Latin, and one would think growing up in Romania she would know Romanian, and then English as wel. My headcannon is she knows (or at least can understand if she can't speak it) nearly all Germanic languages. English, Latin, Romanian, German, Dutch, ect, ect. As well as some words picked up in different languages from her father. After all she's nearly 1600 in this fanfic.

Don't forget to drop a review!


	8. Confrontations and Amandine

It was lunchtime. Blue escorted me to the lunchroom where we paid for some lunch and headed over to where Clawdeen and the others were sitting. They greeted us cheerfully and made room quickly. I smiled at them and sat down beside Clawdeen. They were gossiping and I listened intently. Not that I liked to gossip or anything. Okay, that was a big lie. In Romania, I was basically the queen of gossip. Not intentionally, I just over heard things and then...well, told all my friends.

The table suddenly went dead silent. They were all staring across the cafeteria at someone. My eyes shifted and I saw Cleo entering with Julia. Clawdeen rolled her eyes, "Great, there goes lunch."

"Why?" I asked, taking my eyes off of them and sipping on my juice box. Apple juice just wasn't the same as tomato juice.

"She makes me sick," Clawdeen pushed her plate away. Abbey made a noise in the back of her throat.

"You should eat," Abbey demanded, pushing the plate back towards the girl, "Big test after lunch."

Cleo spotted us and walked right over. She stood with her hands on her hips, staring down at me. "Well, look what we have here! The loser table."

"Why don't you just leave us alone, Cleo?" Clawdeen spoke up, pointing her fork at the girl, "It'll make this easier on everyone."

"Are you still angry about me and Clawd?" Cleo asked, placing a hand to her chest, "I don't understand why you are still hung up about this."

"Oh, yes you do," Clawdeen slammed her hand down on the table, startling the others into silence. "You just don't know when to quit. You date my brother, insult my friends, and then go and ignore me like I'm chopped liver. Well, listen well, girlfriend, I won't put up with anymore of this."

"Girls, girls!" I spoke up, "Let's just eat and-"

"Butt out of this, new girl," Cleo demanded throwing up her hand towards me, before I could defend myself she turned back to Clawdeen, "You wouldn't know romance if it bit you! You were the one who freaked out when your brother asked _me_ out!"

Clawdeen growled, "I freaked out because you said yes when I told you to back off of my brother-"

"Clawdeen," I reached across the table and touched her arm, "Maybe this is all a misunderstanding? I mean if your brother asked her out maybe they do really like each other and-" Clawdeen crossed her arms, looking like I was stabbing her in the back.

"I told you to stay out of this!" Cleo pointed a finger at me, "besides like you would know ANYTHING about romance," she snapped glaring at me. Clawdeen's irritation with me evaporated and she growled again, before they could continue I spoke up again.

"Valentine's day was made for me," I explained, "So I would know a thing or two about romance."

"Ha! Valentine's day was made four hundred years ago!" Cleo laughed, shaking her head.

"Yes, and?" I asked raising my eyebrow, "You are Cleopatra De Nile. Daughter of Ramses De Nile. Trapped in a tomb for thousands of years. If you think that me being alive four hundred years ago is impossible, you should maybe take a look in the mirror."

"Then explain it, why would someone name Valentine's Day after you?" she growled leaning forwards and smirking.

"I started dating the creator of Valentine's Day, Valentine-"

"Wait, that's who you were talking about with my brother this morning, right?" Clawdeen asked. I frowned, how had she known that. However, Cleo glared up at her.

"What are you talking about, Clawdeen, what was he doing talking to her. Alone."

"He gave her a ride this morning, cus I asked. He gave her the front seat," Clawdeen added, giving Cleo a smug look.

"Clawd never lets Cleo in the front seat if he drives her and his sibs. That's why she doesn't get a ride with him anymore," Blue whispered to me, and I bit my lip. Suddenly a bit afraid I had even spoken up.

"Are you telling me that he's cheating on me with _her?_ " Cleo's voice rose.

I held up my hands, my face going beat red feeling seriously guilty for every thought I had of Clawd.

"No offense, to Clawd or Clawdeen, but I would never date a werewolf," I quickly defended, "My father would kill me where I stood."

"Still doesn't mean you couldn't have a quickie with him!" she hissed, and then added almost nonchalantly, "Though, I can't see Clawd doing that with you. I mean, just look at your makeup and your clothes! He needs a girl with more refined tastes. Not someone who looks like they threw makeup at their face and blindly picked out clothes this morning."

My eyes filled with tears, I could've put up with her insinuating that Clawd would never want me. I had Valentine. However, I tried so hard to look perfect for my first day of school, and she just tore my entire look apart. To top it off, I couldn't even see if she was right. I stood up suddenly.

"I should go find my next class," I whispered before fleeing towards the exit. I pushed open the door and flew headfirst into someone. As I stumbled backwards, I swore to myself that I wasn't going to bump into anyone else. This was getting ridiculous.

The frustration of not being able to flee as quickly as I had hoped made more tears flow down my cheeks, and I wiped quickly at my cheeks.

"Laura?"

I looked up, and saw Clawd staring down at me. Deuce was standing just behind him, eyebrows pulled together in confusion. Great. They probably think I'm a cry-baby. I sniffled.

"I'm just-"

"Lala!" Clawdeen pushed open the doors of the cafeteria and stopped, she glared at her brother. The others hurried over, but Clawdeen stormed up to her brother and pushed him.

"Hey! What did I do? She was already crying!" Clawd threw his hands up, glaring at his sister.

"Do you wanna know why she's crying?" Clawdeen demanded, jabbing a finger into his chest. I felt my chest tighten. I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled on it.

"No, no. It's okay. It's none of his concern," I said trying to quiet her from telling them what Cleo had said. As if by admitting it to anyone would make it true. I didn't want Clawd or Deuce to hear what Cleo had said. I wished that none of the girls had heard her say that either.

"She's crying because of your girlfriend," Clawdeen growled at him, ignoring me, "She called Draculaura a slut, and accused her of trying to get into your pants, and then proceeded to tell her she was too ugly. You really know how to pick your girlfriends," she pointed at me and added, "I swear to god, Clawd, if she makes another one of my friends cry again. I'm using her to sharpen my nails."

"Cleo's just being Cleo," Deuce defended the girl, "She just gets over dramatic sometimes, I'm sure she didn't mean it."

Clawdeen snarled at him, "Well, I don't care if she means it, Deuce, she said it! Open your eyes, she's not nice and I don't know why you're defending her! Now come on, Laura."

She led me away, with the other girls sending looks of disappointment at the boys. I bit back my emotions and was led into the girl's washroom. Clawdeen and Frankie helped me fix my makeup, all of them reassuring me that I was freaky flawless and Cleo was just jealous.

I didn't know if I believed them, but I was feeling better by the time lunch ended.

Abbey said she had a class right next to the Home Ec class and would walk me. On the way over, she told me that she could teach me how to fight if I wanted to challenge Cleo to a fight. I turned down her offer. There was no reason for me to fight Cleo. In her mind she won, and I didn't want to have to face her again.

"Pah. Fine, have it your way. Fight would still be better."

I thanked her regardless of my thoughts of her suggestion and head into the Home Ec room. The teacher ushered me towards a seat and a few second before the bell rang, Deuce entered the classroom and headed over. He faltered when he saw me, but continued on and sat down beside me.

We said nothing as the teacher instructed the class on what to do. It was apparently a 'pop quiz' on baking. We'd all bake something and then the teacher would judge it at the end of the class.

When she released us to start, Deuce and I sat still for a moment. I didn't know what to bake, nor did I know really how to bake. He pulled out his phone and proceeded to ignore me. Great. Now he hated me.

"We'll bake some Amandine," he told me, leaning closer and holding his phone out to me. My eyes widened slightly, that was a Romanian dish. "It'll be easy, we'll have plenty of time, and it can be easily split up and we can each take some home."

I nodded, not knowing what to say exactly. He placed his phone on the counter and stood up, "Just so you know, this was your idea and you did everything yourself."

I blinked, "Why?"

"I don't bake," Deuce shrugged his shoulders, "Now, we need eggs, flour, cocoa powder, oil, water," he finished listing off the ingredients and we headed over to the pantry. He instructed me on how to beat the egg whites and fold in the egg yolks before working on the filling. I was concentrating solely on my task, sure that I was going to mess it up. "I'm sorry bout Cleo. That was uncool."

I stiffened and felt my eyes burn, but continued to fold the egg yolks into the whites.

"Add the cocoa powder and flour mixture," he pointed to the bowl after checking my work. I listened without comment. "She lets her jealousy get the better of her, and after she started dating Clawd she lost a bunch of her friends. The comment she made to Blue about her accent was her not thinking and everyone takes her words to heart and before she could stop it, Blue was at the bottom of the food chain."

"Just because she feels guilty doesn't mean that she's excused, has she apologized?" I asked, looking over at him. He shook his head.

"Never got a chance and now when she goes over to them, they hate her too much to listen," Deuce explained, putting his bowl to the side and greasing a pan. "I'm not going to ask you to forgive her for what she said to you without an apology from her…but I'm telling you to just talk to people who don't hate her to see their opinions of her."

I didn't promise anything, and we finished making the Amandine.

The teacher gave us an A+ for taste, and look. Deuce only took a few pieces of the desert and allowed me to take the rest home with me. I thanked him, and told him that if he could convince Cleo to apologize to the girls, then I was sure the others would be able to find it within themselves to apologize.

The rest of the day went by smoothly, and I met up with Clawdeen at her locker.

"Bad news, Laura, we have to walk home. Clawd has football practice," she rolled he eyes and then glanced at my hands. "What's that?"

"Chocolate cake," I said, lifting it up. She 'ooo'ed at it and then linked arms with me. It was a long way home, but we managed to get there before Clawdeen had to eat. "Here," I said handing her the cake, "This is for your family."

She blinked and took the cake, "Why?"

"In apology to ruining the dinner the other day," I looked at the house, "Also, I'm sure you parents wouldn't mind having a treat when they get home from the B&B, right?"

Clawdeen grinned, "Totally. Thanks, Lala."

I waved at her and headed the rest of the way to my house. As I started up the steps, my feet turned to concrete and I felt like it was taking forever to get into my house. Dreading the talk I had to have with my father once I crossed that door. Hopefully, Samantha wouldn't be home.

* * *

A/N: Whoo! Next chapter!

miceaholic: I don't hate Cleo, I really love her character devleopment in the series, but in the beginning she is kind of...awful to people. In Boo York, Boo York I thought she was great and it explains a _lot_ about her attitude and it's great. Cleo won't stay a bad guy for very long, she just needs to get a nudge in the right direction :D

Don't forget to leave a review down below :D 


	9. Valentine

"I'm home!" I called out, walking further into my house. When no one answered immediately, I stood still and waited for the sound of someone moving in the house. Nothing. I sighed. They were all out. I walked up the stairs and towards my room when a text came through from my father.

 _I'm running late be home in thirty_

I sighed and entered my room. Uncle Vlad was most likely sleeping and would be for another five hours. Samantha was nowhere in the house, and I honestly didn't know enough about her to assume where she would be if she wasn't here. So far, I don't think she had actually left the house besides to go to the Wolf house with my father and myself.

Entering my room I dropped down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Today was just…a whirlwind of emotions, and I was a helpless leaf being blown about by its gusts.

I sat up; at least one thing good could come from this. Ever since I was young and my mother taught me the basis of writing, I had fallen in love with poetry and writing. I dug out one of my journals and flipped to an empty spot and poured all of my emotions onto the page. In both poetic and normal verses. I hadn't updated my diary since I had moved to Salem, and it was high time I did.

My phone vibrated distracting me from my writing. Maybe my father was coming home early? I climbed towards my phone and hit answer.

"Hey Draculaura," a familiar southern accent said and I smiled slightly. Ah, perfect! After a hard day, my favourite vampire was phoning me. He always knew when I was feeling down.

"Hey Valentine, what's up?" I asked, pulling a pillow to my chest and smiling at the ceiling.

"Oh, you know. I was just thinking about my sweet, how was your first day of American school?"

I suppressed a sigh, and lied. There was no need to worry him, and besides the little spat with Cleo at lunch it was good. So, in the end I wasn't lying per ce. "It was good, I made some Amandine in Home Ec, and I've already made some friends who've watched my back to make sure I don't embarrass myself."

He laughed, "I doubt that you'd do anything to embarrass yourself, darling. You're perfect."

Apparently not perfect enough according to Cleo.

"It couldn't have been all good," Valentine added almost offhandedly. "Weren't you upset a couple hours ago?"

I froze my mouth working but no sound coming out. How did he know that? "W-Why would you think that?"

"I don't know, I started to know when you were feeling bad after you left," he replied, my lips pressed together and I looked down.

"I...have to go..." I quickly pressed the off button, dropped my phone on the bed, and covered my face with my hands. He was starting to know what I was feeling. Only the bad. Angry, sad, and those bad feelings. I jumped up from my bed and paced my room. Eventually, I heard the sputtering noise of Clawd returning home and pressed my hands over my ears.

This was bad. This was so bad. How would my father react to this? Would he be angry? Happy that Valentine was so in sync with me? My father had ever been able to tell if two females in his life were in pain or upset, my mother and me. Though, nowadays I wondered if he truly was able to tell if I was upset.

My teeth sank into my lip. Maybe...maybe if Valentine and I did not see each other for a while, he will not want me as just another mate.

My phone vibrated again, but it was text from my father.

 _Meeting dragging on. Late night walk later?_

I sent him a messaging confirming that. We hadn't gone on a walk for what seemed like ages. It was usually the best, and the only time when he was ever truly honest with me. When I was still human he used to walk me to the river to pick flowers for mother. He'd tell me stories of how he knew my biological father and how much of a warrior he was. Of course, over the years he stopped telling me stories of my biological father, and he became my father. I never met the man whom my mother was married to before Dracula took us in. All I knew of as my father was…Dracula, and the only home I truly knew was Romania.

The moment I thought of Romania, my thoughts started to drift back to Valentine and I closed my eyes tightly and wrapped my arms around myself. I didn't know if I wanted to be with Valentine for the rest of my life. I didn't know if he loved me as much as I loved him, or if he was just filling his egotistical side. I would rather have him love me, like I loved him. If he was turning into another stupid male vampire...well, I could learn to live without him very easily.

A bath would help me relax and get these thoughts out of my head. I already had enough to worry about. My father and I were going to talk about his marriage with Samantha, and I didn't want to be weighed down by thoughts of Valentine during it.

I headed into the bathroom and stripped. As I ran a brush through my hair, I remembered when I took a shower at Clawdeen's house. How Clawd had accidently opened the door while I was indecent. A blush coloured my cheeks.

My fingers ran through my hair and I could smell the bleach. My father was right. I hoped the pink colour would not escape. That would be awful.

I searched the bathroom before finding a Rosemary and Peppermint bubble bath bottle in the closet. After I tested the scent, I poured some into the bathtub and started the bath. The smell rose and filled the room. While I was waiting for the water to rise and the bubbles to fill, I got some candles out, set them around the mirror, and lit them. The scenario was very relaxing and I was able to slip into the bubbles after the water had risen so the bubbles were just about touching the lip of the tub when I climbed in. My head tilted back and I stared at the roof where the candles were throwing orange flickering lights.

My ears picked up small things going around outside the bathroom. I could faintly hear my uncle snoring. Samantha came home shortly after I got into the bath, and a while after, my father entered the house. My father and Samantha talked downstairs for a while. I could hear Count Fabulous occasionally squeaking in his sleep. I was calm and collected. It was nice moving here...not that I would admit that any time soon. I was glad we had, and a feeling deep inside of me made me feel as if there was so much more waiting for me just around the corner. Nothing bad. Something good. It gave me just enough extra encouragement to strive to stay here.

Which meant...accepting the fact that Samantha and my father were to be married. I wondered if he would ever tell her that we are vampires. I wondered if he would tell her that he was married to three other women still. Well, four if you included my mother. Except they weren`t married and I hadn`t seen her for around three hundred years.

I climbed out of the bathtub after around an hour of soaking and letting my muscles relax. After draining the tub, I pulled on the dress I had selected and ran a comb through my hair. After styling my hair, I headed downstairs.

"How was school?" Samantha asked cheerfully.

"It was…good," I replied, "Thanks for asking."

"You're welcome. Now," she turned her attention to her fiancé, "I was thinking we could go to the movies tonight and-"

"I can't," my father stopped her; "Laura and I are going out for a walk."

Samantha didn't seem too pleased by this, "What?"

"I'm going on a walk with my daughter," his tone left no room for an argument. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, I just wasn't expecting that," Samantha replied and then shrugged her shoulders, "Have fun then."

With that she turned and headed up the stairs and into their bedroom without another word. My father waved towards the door. "After you, _mi cara_."

Night had already fallen when we left; I had been in the tub longer than I thought. My father took my hand and tucked it into his elbow, guiding me down the street. We lived on the outskirts of Salem, and so the forest stretched out behind our houses. Most likely to give us the most privacy, if we had people who lived behind us they would see things that we couldn't allow them to see, and we'd have to flee. Though, this time it would be many families fleeing instead of just one.

Neither of us spoke as we walked along, just basked in the light of the moon. It was…nice and simple. Something that I hadn't thought when I thought of my father for a long time. I knew he was waiting for me to start the conversation, and I also knew that I couldn't put off what we came out here to talk about forever.

"Do you love Samantha?" I asked quietly, after we were well down the path in the forest. The question must've thrown my father for the loop, his hand over top of my tightened ever so slightly.

The only women I had ever heard my father say 'I love you' to was my mother. I had never heard him say any sort of confirmation of his love to the three wives back in Romania, my first stepmother, or Samantha. I had asked him the same question about each wife he married, and he always distracted me and never gave a true answer. If he did the same tonight, I would tell him that if he didn't love this woman, he was better off leaving her.

"I…" he started and then sighed, "Sometimes I…feel as if I do. Other times? I can't stand the women. It's not the same as my wives, I care for them, but I never feel as if I am in love with any of them. Not the way I loved your mother. I don't think I will love another woman as much as I loved Camilla."

I leaned my head against his arm, "I miss her."

He kissed the top of my head and murmured some comforting words in Latin.

"I don't know why you have married so many people," I spoke after the sadness of my mother faded. "I know you married Sonia as a power move, and to give me a mother figure," I added before he could explain her, "but what about the other three?"

"After the second time Sonia attempted to run away with you, I banished her," my father told me something I already knew, "I still needed a wife, and so I married Aleera, and she moved in with her ladies in waiting Marishka and Verona. One thing led to another and-"

I quickly pulled a face and moved away from him, "I don't want to hear about your private life, Dad."

He cleared his throat, "Yes, well, you know the story."

At first I didn't say anything, and we began to loop back towards the house. When the house came into view, I saw Uncle Vlad sitting on the back porch reading a book under candlelight.

Before we got into hearing distance of him, I said, "If she truly makes you happy, then I can put up with her."

My father kissed my head, "Thank you, my dear daughter. Though I must admit that ever since I started to date Samantha, it's like every day she becomes more and more important to me…like soon she'll become the only one who matters."

"Daddy, this is you we are talking about. You have four women you are married too; you had my mother, and countless others who you have dated. As well as the fact that you normally don't look twice at a human unless they look like they are healthy and would have nice tasting blood," I replied shaking my head, "That probably makes her more…alluring to you."

"Which is why this whole thing is curious," Uncle Vlad said, placing the book on his lap. "I know your father very well, known him since I was born," he was clearly trying to attempt at humour there, but I was more curious as to what he was getting at. "He basically hates humans and only puts up with them because not all deserve to die; he sees them as cattle basically. Since when does a human want to marry cattle? When either the human has serious mental case issues, or they have been..." he trailed off, swirling his hand as if he wanted someone to continue.

"Given drugs?" I asked, after he gave a very long and exasperated sigh when neither my father nor I spoke. He pointed at me with a smile.

"Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner!" he exclaimed and jumped to his feet, he headed over with the book in his hands. My father did not look amused by his brother, but then again my father scarcely ever looked amused. I don't think I had ever seen my father smile at his siblings.

"Are you saying she drugged me into proposing to her? I know what every drug tastes like-" he paused and glanced down at me, "Don't do drugs," he added as an afterthought, "-and quick frankly I'd know if she was doing something to screw me over."

"You claimed her as a mate then?" my uncle asked, looking at my father, "Which is weird, especially if you just said that she makes you feel like no one else matters. Normally that means you are in love with her, not just her body and maybe her conversational skills. Which, honestly that woman has zero of. Have you seen her talk to any of the others here? In two seconds she is able to offend everyone in the room."

"I don't think Samantha has the courage to do that, she may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I would like to think she wouldn't try to drug one of the world's richest and most dangerous men," I shoved the conversation away from mates and back into the drug area. I did not want to think about the former, Valentine's words still fresh in my mind. "Besides, Dad isn't exactly dumb, he knows when he's being tricked into something."

"Van Helsing? Remember him, dear brother? Tricked you. You didn't even expect him to be vampire slayer!" Uncle Vlad said, crossing his arms and staring straight at my father.

"Are you saying that Samantha is a Van Helsing? Because I know the taste of Van Helsing blood, I know the taste of Samantha's blood and there is no way they are in anyway related," my father became instantly defensive. He straightened his back and his fangs extended slightly. My uncle raised his hands and backed off.

"I'm just using a parallel to what I think is going on, minus the vampire slayer bit. She could be using you for your power."

The two went off bickering and I headed into the house. I giggled at the thought. Samantha, a vampire hunter? She could barely stand the sight of blood. Killing a vampire would take so much guts and a strong stomach. We don't die easily, and heal very quickly. Unless you are able to stab us in the heart directly, or cut off our heads we wouldn't die. However, you'd have to catch us extremely off guard or be faster than we were to accomplish even the slightest damage.

The only creature fast enough to even the playing field was a werewolf, and there was no way that Samantha was one. Too little hair.

I sighed, my uncle was wrong. Samantha was just a human and my father was marrying her. She was going to be part of the family, and I had to accept that fact. It would make my life so much easier.


	10. Gossiping Ghouls

After lunch the next day, the school was buzzing with whispers and news. Something big had happened, but before I could hear what it was, the teacher distracted the class or told everyone to quit talking. I wasn't getting frustrated, I had gotten the wind that two people had broken up but I had no idea who. Deuce said that he wasn't getting involved in the gossip when I asked him, and went back to mixing the recipe. Abbey had not paid attention to the gossiping in her previous class, and wasn't in the mood to help me listen in on others conversations. She told me just to ask someone directly, that was the best way apparently to get gossip.

I disagreed, what was the fun in that?

As I put my things into my locker after school, my locker door slammed shut suddenly. I jumped backwards, but Clawdeen grabbed my hands. She was grinning from ear to ear. "Have you heard?"

Ooo! Was it the gossip? I shook my head and listened eagerly.

"Clawd and Cleo broke up!"

My mouth dropped, that was not was I expecting. I blinked a few times, and was ashamed that my first thought was 'So, he's single?'. Clawdeen squeezed my hands and sighed happily.

"How? Why?" I asked finally, ready to get all the juicy parts of the gossip, as well as figure out who broke up with whom.

"From the rumors," Clawdeen let go of my hands and leaned against the locker beside mine. "Cleo broke up with Clawd, and apparently he is now super broken hearted."

"Then why are you happy?" I asked, frowning at her, "That's awful."

"I doubt my brother cared that much about her," Clawdeen insisted waving her hand, she waited until I finished collecting everything from my locker before dragging me along behind her. "If he did, then he'd bring her by the house more and not talk about how eventually he's going to find his mate."

I sighed, "That's good then, and everyone gets what they want then? Clawd is able to find his mate, you don't have to hate your brother's girlfriend, and Cleo can…" I trailed off I didn't know that much about Cleo anyways. "Can do whatever she does, I suppose."

"We should celebrate, what are you doing after school?"

"I was thinking of just sitting outside and reading," I shrugged, and then grinned at her, "but if you have a better idea I'm totes up for it."

"Oh, shoot! I totally forgot I promised my mom and dad that I'd help at the B&B for an hour or so after school," she grumbled, "Well, have fun tanning while I deal with stuck up business men complaining about the lack of service."

I felt the need to apologize, but she waved me off. Her father picked her up outside the school and I walked home with Frankie, as Blue had swimming practice. Frankie was super stoked and nervous about a test that was coming up in her History class, and I promised her I'd help her study for it before she crossed the street to her house.

When I got inside, I jogged up the stairs and got into a pair of shorts and a tank top, it was my equivalent to tanning, except the sun couldn't touch my skin. I could just feel the warmth from outside of the shady area. I grabbed a few books and my phone before heading downstairs; I added an umbrella to my pile of objects and stepped outside. The other day, Samantha had set up a spot to tan in the backyard, and I headed over to it. I set up the umbrella before settling down for a couple hours of tanning...

Someone shook me and I jumped slightly, I must have fallen asleep because it was much, much brighter and Clawdeen was grinning down at me.

"Hey, girl, mind if I join you? I'm done my mandatory service for my parents, and I'm ready to get my tan on," she exclaimed, and after a look at her already naturally tan skin. I shook my head.

"Go ahead, I don't mind," I smiled back at her as she set up her own beach chair beside me and stretched out on it. "What's new?"

"Not much, my parents told me to say 'thank you' for the Ahmendane or whatever it was called. It was really good by the way," she said and placed sunglasses on her nose. I nodded and stretched until my back popped comfortably and I sighed. She added, "Also, Clawd had to help out tonight, but he ducked out due to practice, even though I swore he said the other day that there was no practice tonight."

"Maybe he really is heartbroken? Or maybe there is something else wrong?" I questioned, not knowing much about werewolves, except that they made fierce friends once you gain their friendship. Oh, and that they got moody during full moons.

"My mother thinks he is just feeling the effects of the full moon that's coming up soon, but I think it's because he's thinking too much about a lot of important things," she replied with a sigh, "What about you?"

"What I think about Clawd, or what's up?" I asked glancing over at her; squinting from how bright everything was, compared to staring at the umbrella.

"Both?" she asked with a slight confused look.

"I don't know much about Clawd, but I guess he's feeling that way because of the moon. As for what is up, a lot of things. For one, my uncle thinks Samantha is using my father for something. He even compared her to Van Helsing," I explained looking at her with an amused look.

"Van Helsing? Like as in that guy in Van Helsing? Ya'know that movie with Hugh Jackman?" Clawdeen asked, glancing at me "Wasn't he a werewolf or something?"

"No. Not at all. In Bram Stokers novel," I lifted up the book I had been reading before I fell asleep, "he was more for killing Dracula, but in real life, he did not discriminate. He killed all kinds of monsters. Though hated vampires the worst. He was a very, very knowledgeable person, who knew everything about vampires. How to kill them, how to get close to them without them noticing ill intentions. Everything. This novel is pretty accurate; we rented out our castle in Transylvania to this completely bozo who ended up being murdered by Van Helsing. He also almost killed my father," I said, and then realized I was saying this very nonchalantly. "It happened long time ago, and the Van Helsing's have mostly been wiped out. Which is why I think it's very odd that my uncle is comparing her to him."

"Whoa..." Clawdeen let her sunglasses fall down her nose as she stared at me, "I liked his depiction in Van Helsing. He seemed like he was the good guy."

"Which is what Bram Stoker also made him out to be, the good guy who kills Dracula who is basically a murderer in the books," I explained lifting the book and passing it between my hands. "Anyways, I'm sure you'd love to hear more," I said sarcastically with a smile, "but I'm done with school for today."

She laughed, "Same here! Now, let's talk about something more interesting. How is that vampire boyfriend?"

I handed her my phone to see the nine unread texts from him. Her eyebrows rose. "Why are you ignoring him?"

"It's about vampire stuff," I added, she nodded and shifted so she was facing me more. "This may take a while though..." I attempted to stall but she shook her head.

"The sun hasn't set yet, we've got awhile," she smiled fondly at me,

I told her everything, about how I and Valentine first met. At a ball in my grandmother's honour – she had been turning three thousand years old – and how we danced all night long after Bram had introduced us. I told her about how we courted, and how during the Vampire-Werewolf war we were separated for the entire time because the Monster Council wouldn't allow vampires to travel between the New World and Europe. I told her how vampires mated similarly to werewolves, they chose one mate. However, vampire society expected a male vampire to take more than one wife to increase chances of having a pureblood vampire child. She looked disgusted by this but kept silent. Then I told her Valentine claimed me as a mate.

"Does he love you?" she asked, "I mean, the guy named a holiday in honour of you after himself. Did he even try to get back to you during the war or did he just sit in the New World twiddling his thumbs until it was over? God that makes me so angry! My parents fought in the war, and they got separated from nearly their entire pack when they were sent to the New World. They fought tooth and nails to get back to their pack before they settled here."

"I was too focused on surviving to ask him," I admitted and then sighed, "It doesn't matter. I'm trying to ignore him and hope he either realizes that he's got to say he loves me and that he'll only ever love me before I ever accept that he's my mate. Besides, my father doesn't even know yet."

"Is that a bad thing?" Clawdeen asked, "Your father seems to be a control freak."

I shrugged, staring at the trees that backed our houses. "I don't know. He's tried to become more and more liberal with his views, but I think there are some things that he can't change his views on."

Clawdeen's father exited their back door and waved at us before firing up the barbeque. She glanced at me, "Are you going to be okay if he's cooking meat?"

"I should probably go inside, see you at school tomorrow?"

"I'll see if I can rope Clawd into driving us again," Clawdeen promised, "Want me to help you carry things inside?"

"No, I've got it, thanks though!"

She waved and headed over to her house, kissing her father's cheek as she passed him to get into the house. I gathered up my books and the umbrella before heading up the back steps. I tried the door, but it was locked. I frowned; I hadn't locked the door when I left earlier. Neither Uncle Vlad nor my father would've locked the door.

Above, one of the windows opened. I glanced up, and saw Samantha looking out over the woods. She turned around, but stayed within view of the backyard. "I'm telling you, Vlad," her voice carried down, "She's hiding something."

I shrunk slightly against the door. I wanted to hear this.

"No, she's not. I know her," my father responded, his voice quieter. Samantha let out a soft laugh.

"I overheard her talking about her…what, boyfriend?" Samantha asked, and ran a hand through her hair. "Sounds like it's getting quite serious."

"I know of her relationship with…Val," I heard my father hesitate; Valentine was not a common name anymore. "They are working with what has happened, I'm sure that they're relationship will prove stronger through this endeavour."

"Val?" Samantha asked, "Who's that?"

"Her boyfriend, he lives in Romania," my father added, as if in afterthought. Samantha made a surprised noise.

"I wasn't talking about him."

What? What other boyfriend did I have?

"My daughter wouldn't date more than one person at a time," my father defended me, "Don't question her honour."

"Then I won't tell you what I saw," Samantha said, turning to face the window again. I pressed my back against the wall. I could see Clawdeen's father watching me out of the corner of his eye. Subtly he glanced up towards the window. He could hear everything they were saying as well.

"What did you see?" my father asked, "Don't lie to me, Samantha."

"The other day, when she ran out into the rain. She came home escorted by that boy from next door, and she kissed him," Samantha explained, "I don't think American life is good for her. Just look at the clothing she's wearing? She was so conservative before-"

My uncle opened the door, yawning. I burst past him into the house. I didn't want to think about what Mr. Wolf would've thought about Samantha's accusation, and I didn't want to be caught by my father once the words processed either.

I ran up the stairs and burst into my bedroom. Closing the door and locking it. How could Samantha just say that sort of thing! What was my father going to think? He might've developed a more lenient attitude towards different Monsters over the past couple decades, but that doesn't mean he was ready for me to kiss a werewolf! Especially if I was dating a vampire.

Oh my ghoul, he was totally going to kill me.

No, even worse, he was going to ground me.


	11. Manipulating the Truth

I was right, my father grounded me indefinitely. I was not allowed to go over to the Wolf's house, my father was going to drive me to school and pick me up, and most importantly, I was not allowed to talk to Clawd at all. Least I fall in love with him and become a rebellious princess. I was beginning to think my father was thinking of a Romeo and Juliet scenario. Two children from rival houses falling in love, and ending up killing themselves.

There was no way that was going to happen, and I was furious with him even suggesting that. I wanted things to work out between Valentine and I, and in our anger last night, I had let the bat out of the attic, so to speak.

Before I could take back what I said or try to change his mind, he stormed out of my room. Slamming the door shut and leaving me in a deafening silence. My father had stuck true to his word and for the next few days he drove me to school and picked me up. I had seen barely anything of the Wolf family. Except for during school, where I feigned that I was super busy after school. It was better than saying that my father never wanted me to be friends with them ever again.

I knew eventually I would have to figure out how to tell my friends that and I wanted to do that outside of school. That meant I had to wait for my father to actually leave so I could go and speak to them. Thankfully, my father had just left for a date with Samantha.

Before I could leave my room to sneak out to the Wolf house, my bedroom door burst open and Clawdeen strode in. "What's going on? My dad told me what happened the other day and then suddenly your dad is not giving you a spare moment alone with me? Is it because we're werewolves or-"

I hugged her tightly and she stopped talking, when I pulled away she stared down at me with her eyebrows drawn together. "Are you okay, Lala?"

I pulled her over to my bed where we sat down, staring at the window. "You know what I was telling you the other day? About how Valentine claimed me as his mate? I didn't tell you…everything."

"Well, your Uncle said we have two hours, and then he is kicking me out," she gave me a grin, "Something about having to air out the house so your father doesn't know I was here."

My eyebrows shot up, "Uncle Vlad let you in?"

"He said, and I quote," she cleared her throat and put on a fake Transylvanian accent, "'This iz my own damn house, I vill invite whom I please into it!'"

I giggled, but the sound faded and I sighed. She rubbed my back, "What's wrong?"

"When I started to court Valentine my father wasn't exactly happy, but he told us that when we became mates we would be married and not a day sooner. I think at the time he never thought he would accept our relationship since Valentine is lower in Vampire Society. Now he wants nothing more than to see us marry, and he figured out that Valentine and I are mated," I explained quietly, avoiding saying how he found out. She didn't need to know I kissed her brother if she didn't already.

Clawdeen's hand stilled and I snuck a glance at her. A million emotions seemed to flash across her face and she stood up. She paced for a moment, "So, you're going to be married to him? I thought you didn't want to be?"

"I never said I didn't want to be," I shook my head, "I just want to be sure he loves me for who I am, not for what I am."

"What are you?"

"A princess," I stood up quickly barreling through that fact when I saw her face return to shock, "and when my father…retires, then I will become Queen and whoever I marry will become King of the Vampires. That comes with a lot of responsibility and power. How am I to know if Valentine loves me because of who I am?"

"Has he said he loves you, has he looked at you in a way that you've undoubtedly known was pure love?" Clawdeen asked, and I hesitated, "The fact that you've hesitated and the fact that you are unsure about him means that you doubt he loves you truly. I bet it also means that you have fallen out of love with him."

I didn't want to think of that, and pushed the subject on to the more important aspect, "There is one small thing though, since my dad figured out... I am going to have to go back to Romania once this school year ends."

"What?" she exclaimed, panic in her eyes. "You can't leave yet! School ends in a couple months! Isn't there anyway you can stay?"

"I could ask Gory and Bram to come and live here, but that would take so much persuasion since they love Romania. They've been living there for almost 150 years now, If I develop roots here then my father wouldn't really be able to send me back to Romania, I wouldn't be happy and that would make him super guilty," I replied, and sighed shaking my head.

"Then do it! Get those two to come to Salem, you can't leave yet," she repeated, jabbing a finger at me. "Send a message to them ASAP and don't stop pestering them until they agree to move here."

"There is one other way..." I trailed off and shook my head, "Though it is insanely impossible."

"What?"

"I have to fall in love with someone in the months I have left here, that exceeds the love towards Valentine," I said with a humourless laugh, looking at the ground. When I glanced back at her however, I saw the wheels in her head spinning.

"What if you tricked them into thinking you are in love?" she asked, tapping her fist against her open palm. A wicked grin on her face.

"How am I going to do that?"

"We get someone to play as your boyfriend! Valentine will probably come here to claim you as his mate if your father gave up trying to get you to go to Romania, right? You could just say, 'Sorry, Valentine, I found a new beau!'" she said, her face lighting up as if it was a brilliant idea. She looked so happy with her idea it pained me to poke holes in it.

"Well, he'd have to continue to be my boyfriend until he dies," I answered, "because the moment we broke up, Valentine would still claim me as a mate. In addition, there is a small problem. Males are possessive over the females."

"Which means?" Clawdeen asked, looking a little put down.

"I'm going to use a werewolf analogy. When a werewolf male and female mate, not like have sex, but as in have a undying relationship, if someone threatens one part of the relationship doesn't the other get very possessive, angry, and even like would go as far as to kill the person?" I asked, she paused and nodded. A look of dread on her face.

"That is true...if someone were to try to drive a wedge between my parents, the person trying would probably end up either dead or very hurt," she looked at me, and pressed her lips together.

"If I tried to pretend to date someone who wasn't equally strong and possessive, they would probably end up killed and I would still end up with him," I murmured looking at the bed. Clawdeen patted my shoulder.

"We'll figure something out, I'm sur-" she cut herself off mid-sentence and a slight thoughtful look appeared. I wanted to shake her and tell her to stop worrying about it. I would deal with it, but she tapped her chin and strode away. "Equally strong and possessive, you say..."

"I'm sure we won't find a vampire willing to do this for me," I looked up at her with a raise of my eyebrow. I shook my head, "It doesn't matter, and I'll figure it out." I walked over to my boudoir and pulled my hair out of my pigtails. She walked up behind me and started to run a brush through my hair. The wicked grin from earlier returning.

"Yes, but the thing is vampires and werewolves share things in common. They are possessive over their mates, strong and deadly, they are both intimidating, and they both can turn into animals," she said in a singsong voice, the wickedness of the grin fading, and it turning giddy.

"Okay...but I still don't understand where this is going," I replied chewing on my lip. I totally understood the direction of this conversation, I just didn't want to admit that to her hopefully she'd get annoyed and not say anything more about it.

"Clawd is single now," she made a circling motion with her hand, trying to get me to make the connection by myself. I twisted around in the chair.

"If Valentine doesn't kill Clawd, my father would kill him! Samantha saw me kiss Clawd's cheek-" I stopped myself, her eyebrows shot up in surprise and I quickly defended myself, "It was after he walked me home, a totes innocent kiss! I totally stepped out of line, but the fact is my father figured out about an innocent little kiss and now I'm not allowed to see you guys at all! Besides he's your brother! Don't you have any worry about his life?"

"Shh! What if your Uncle hears?" she placed a finger to her mouth and turned me back around to face the mirror. Her hands rested on clothing that had no body within it, and yet she stared at my face regardless. "A kiss on the cheek is no big deal, Lala. Besides, Clawd will someday become Alpha of the Salem pack; he's strong enough to handle himself against Valentine. Also, he's already protective over you. Probably because you're so small," she patted my shoulder and her face softened, "I'm sure to your father that could pass as love."

"Yeah? Speaking of my father. You know, the King of the Vampires, currently third oldest vampire in the entire world? Your brother wouldn't even be able to see my father coming if he figured out that Clawd was, as my father would put it, 'tainting our bloodline'," I shot back in a quiet hiss, hoping she'd get the point.

"Says the vampire who doesn't drink blood, goes to a human school, and likes to be out during the day," Clawdeen said, "Your father basically worships the ground you walk on, he'd bend rules for you. If you pretended to love Clawd enough then he'd bend, may not be happy about it, but he wouldn't kill someone who makes you truly happy."

I didn't have anything to rationally retort with. So, I shook my head and went with just denying it. "I am not pretending to love Clawd; I will not put anyone through all the trouble just so I can be a tad bit happier with my life. He's incredibly sweet, and gentle and-" I cut myself off and looked away from her gaze, "I'm old, Clawdeen. Eventually, I need to accept what I am and that means accepting the fact that I am a Princess and am not free to make choices that will make me happy. I need to think of my people-"

"You never have to accept your nature," Clawdeen said seriously, her hands squeezing my shoulders, "If Clawd figures he can help you in anyway, he'll do it. My parents used to be your father's slaves, but I can tell that they'd do anything for you, and that sense of selflessness went to my brother."

My eyes snapped up to hers, surprise flooding through me. Her parents were slaves to my father? How come they treated him decently then? My father had ordered the eradication of all werewolves that were his slaves two hundred years ago and that started the war.

"That makes me feel like a spoiled princess wanting to not follow her place in society and running off with the stable hand," I ignored the information she just dumped on me. Clawdeen's face melted away into a grin.

"But it would be awesome, you'd make an awesome girlfriend to Clawd," she added, "I can see it now, him helping you grab things, protecting you from the big bad vampires. You'd be _the_ couple of the school," she smiled, "Best of all, if you two were to really fall in love and get married, you would be my sister."

"I don't even like Clawd," I lied through my teeth not meeting her eyes again. "Why are you already fantasizing about a wedding that will never happen?" I shook my head and rubbed my temples. "We don't need to come up with an answer right now," I muttered opening my eyes and looking at her. "Don't say anything to Clawd about this, because if you are right about him wanting to help, I don't want to have to even give him that option."

"Don't worry, I won't say anything about this to Clawd," she crossed her heart with a nail and smiled at me softly. "Though you will probably have to tell the girls soon, they deserve to know as well, and hey! Maybe they'll have some howling ideas?"

"Maybe," I said with a smile and she finished brushing my hair and styled it into a terrific up do. When she had finished my Uncle stuck his head in the door and pointed at the watch on his wrist.

"It's time for you to leave, Clawdeen," he pushed the door open further. "Dracula will be home in an hour."

Clawdeen hugged me and gave me a grin, "See you at school, Lala."

"See you," I squeezed her arm and returned the grin. She hurried out the door and my Uncle gave me a smile and winked.

"There are subtle ways to rebel against your father."

He shut the door and I turned around and stared at the mirror. I touched my hair and sighed. There were times when I wished I could see my reflection, and that wasn't the only thing I wished I could change about my life.

^v^ ^v^

Clawdeen walked into her house and took off her shoes. Her parents were at the bed and breakfast, leaving her and Clawd to take care of the triplets and Rocks. Clawnor was taken to the bed and breakfast since he was the youngest. The triplets were playing video games and Rocks was cheering them on. She watched the video game idly and walked over to the window. She saw Draculaura's light flicker off and she made up her mind.

She headed up the stairs and into her brother's room. He was doing homework and listening to music. She knew she promised not to tell Clawd, but she had too! It was her duty as Draculaura's friend to save her from living the life chosen for her instead of the one she wanted – no deserved! – to have.

"What's up little sis?" Clawd asked without turning around, "Here to bad talk Cleo some more?" his voice was bitter.

"What even happened between the two of you? You've been really irritable lately, did she really break your heart?" she asked, shaking her head, she went to continue the conversation before he could get annoyed, but he turned around and stood up.

"It was a mutual break up," he admitted, his tone hiding his anger, "Neither of us were happy in the relationship, it was affecting my game, and her cheerleading."

Clawdeen blinked in surprise. So, Cleo hadn't broken up with him after all? She hadn't hurt her brother like she thought she did. But, that was for another time, she had a mission.

"That doesn't matter-"

"Doesn't matter?" he snorted, "You've been riding my ass about it since we broke up, and now you don't care?"

"Shut up and listen. I'm here to talk about Draculaura," she said, he sighed and sat back down turning to his books.

"Dad said she got in trouble, leave it be. She's grounded."

She walked over and leaned on his desk, "It's very," she closed his books, "important."

He sighed, "Okay, fine, I'll bite. What is it?"

She told him everything that Draculaura told her, leaving out some parts to save for time. Mostly telling him the more recent events. She then told him he should pretend to date her to save her from Valentine. After she was finished he stared at her for a while. She groaned. "You need to help her, Clawd. It's the only way!"

"What if I mate with someone else while pretending to date her?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, "I know I couldn't help myself from leaving Draculaura to be with the one I was basically designed to love."

"Like that's ever going to happen," she rolled her eyes, Clawd stood up, and she shook her hands, "Sorry, I'm your sister and you know that's an automatic thing for me to do."

"I can't, besides, I don't want to be in a loveless relationship with someone," he rubbed the back of his head,"If Draculaura needed my help wouldn't she just come and ask me? Besides, that just sounds like a bad idea. A werewolf and a vampire dating?"

"Clawd, please, just woo Draculaura into loving you. That way Valentine will be able to tell she actually loves you, and since they haven't gotten married yet he can't exactly tell you to fuck off!" Clawdeen said grabbing his arm, "Besides, as the future Alpha, imagine how much control and power you would have if you were dating the Queen vampire? Our two races would be on equal playing ground and the werewolves wouldn't be treated with such crap!"

"I'm not selfish, Clawdeen, I won't do it. Not unless Draculaura herself asks me to do it. You're meddling," he said shaking his head and sat down on his bed. Clawdeen grew desperate, she was about to tell him something but then paused. Should she tell him the truth or do exactly what he thought she was doing, and make it overdramatic.

"She's in danger Clawd," she said sitting down beside him, telling a lie, "do you know what male vampire do to the female vampires? They suppress them, they are so old fashion. Draculaura will move back to Romania and be forced to be nothing more than a baby machine. "

Clawd's face filled with disgust and rage and he ran a hand through his hair and groaned. "I don't know still."

"Her father is forcing her to marry Valentine. Forcing," Clawdeen stressed, "If Draculaura wanted to marry Valentine and live in Romania, she would. But she is being forced, and that's not right."

"Alright, if it's to protect her from having to live through something like that. I don't know if I can actually ever love her, it'll be very awkward..."

"Thanks, Clawd, really. I am so relieved. Just remember don't mention anything about Valentine in front of her, because that'll spark bad emotions and he'll be able to tell. Just woo her like you would woo any other girl and then ask her out," Clawdeen said and walked out. The moment the door was closed she felt guilt build up. Draculaura wasn't going to know Clawdeen said anything and Clawd wouldn't know that it wasn't Draculaura in danger, but him.

* * *

 **A/N:** I will be uploading a sequel about the vampire/werewolf war tomorrow! It'll have 26 chapters, and will be updated every Tuesday and Thursdays.


	12. Cheerleaders

When my father returned later that night, he didn't suspect a thing and had tried to speak to me about our fight. I shut him out and emailed Gory. There was no way that everything I needed to say to her would fit nicely in a text message. I explained everything to her and requested something big from one of my oldest and best friends. She responded just before school.

 _Draculaura,_

 _This is…troubling for you. Ever since I met you, you have spoken about the day when you and Valentine would get married. What has changed? Also, are you really sure about not wanting to marry him? It's been, what a week since you left for America? What is a week compared to four hundred years of courting, of love? Bram and I have been together for 279 years and I am sure I wish to spend the rest of my undying life with him. We are slowly but surely planning for our wedding next year._

 _However. As much as I would kill to be your Maid of Honour at your wedding, I know in your heart you do not wish for it. So, I'll do it._

 _I will talk to Bram (and honestly he'll do anything I ask) about moving to…Salem? What a dreadful place, full of normies! We will be heading down there anyways for your fathers wedding; hopefully we can convince him that this place is a fangtastic area to live._

 _With Regards, Yours Truly, ect,_

 _Gory Fangtell._

I was over the moon with joy. Maybe this could really work out. I just needed to prove to my father that the friends I have made here were worth staying for. So at lunch, the five of us sat down at one of the tables further away from the crowd. Before they could start eating, I told them what was happening. Abbey made a noise.

"Back at mountain top, men are direct; they will not play silly game and will not force girls into marriage. They offer presents like yaks and furs, then ask for hand in marriage," she said shaking her head, "This boy is not true lover."

"Abbey is right!" Frankie said shaking her head, "Er, at least I think..."

"Mate, if you ain't comfortable with this relationship, why not just tell the bloke to bugger off?" Blue asked, placing her gloved hand on my arm. I sighed and shook my head.

"It's not that easy, it's too late. Even if I tell him to leave me alone, he won't stop trying until I'm married to him," I made a face and Clawdeen let out a growl. I comforted her and she shook her head. Before anymore could be said on the subject, Clawd and Heath sat down at our table. Deuce was nowhere to be seen.

Lunch went about business and as people left in groups, it got quieter. Soon all that was left was me, Clawdeen and Clawd. Clawdeen looked at her watch, "Shit, I forgot I had to go and help the gym teacher prepare for track. Sorry Lala, you know how to get to Home Ec by yourself right?" I nodded and she quickly got up and fled from the table.

I smiled at Clawd slightly before starting to get up, the conversation with Clawdeen still fresh in my mind. "I don't bite, often" he teased with a smile; I giggled and returned to sitting.

"I just thought you'd be more comfortable not in the presence of a vampire," I said softly with a shrug. He laughed and shook his head.

"Vampires scare me just as much as werewolves scare you," he took a swig of his coke and leaned back in his chair.

"So then you are terrified of me," I replied, the corners of my mouth twitching upwards. His grin faded and I giggled, "I'm kidding, you don't terrify me. If you did, do you really think I would be sitting here, or hanging out with your sister on a regular basis?"

"Who knows, you could just be doing what you thought is best to survive," his grin came back and he leaned forwards slightly. "There is a football game coming up this week, you should go," he smiled and nodded his head towards a poster on the wall.

"I'm grounded, forever," I turned down his offer sipping my water. He raised his eyebrow.

"Forever? Haven't you ever rebelled even a little? You could always sneak out," he offered again, and pointed at the poster, "It starts at 7, and shouldn't be longer than an hour."

Again, I brushed off his offer, "I know nothing about American football."

"Then there is no better time to go. Clawdeen's going I'm sure she'd be howling if you wanted to sneak out," he shrugged his shoulder, "It's your choice, but I am the quarterback."

I laughed, "All the more reason to go? I'll…I'll think about it."

"Good! I mean, cool," he cleared his throat, lowering his enthusiasm by quite a bit. We said our goodbyes then, knowing the bell was about to ring to warn us to go back to class.

I walked down the hall and over to my locker. After I grabbed my Home Ec and English binder and shoved my Social textbook back into my locker beside my gym strip, I closed the door. Two females leaned against the lockers beside me. They were opposites, and yet they were the same. The colour schemes of their outfits were the same, just reversed, and their hair was dyed opposite colours. I turned around, suspecting they were just at their lockers when a girl smirked at me.

"Well, well, well, look at what the cat dragged in," she laughed into the back of her hand. She had short red hair with yellow blended in and black stripes across her bangs. Her blue eyes gave me a cool look, though her grin was the opposite of the look. "The new girl getting all friendly with Cleo's ex-beau," the girl teased, and the twins laughed at the same time.

"We're just friends. He's my best friend's brother," I replied, not letting them think I was intimidated. This was a common occurrence at an all vampire school. You always had to act like you were better than everyone else, or you were shoved down to the bottom where everyone just stepped on you.

"You know, you should really try out for the squad," the female said, her tone becoming very friendly, even though she was just accusing me of flirting with Clawd, who wasn't even dating Cleo anymore. "That would cause such sweet chaos, imagine Clawd's new sweetheart auditioning for a spot on the Cheerleading squad," she said placing her hand on her cheek and smiling.

"I have no interest in becoming part of the American cheerleading squad, now if you'll excuse me," I replied and attempted to walk away. One of the twins stepped into my way and nudged me back into the lockers. "Ow! Hey!"

"Why don't you try? Besides, all Queens must be dethroned after a while. Quite frankly, we think Cleo has lived out her reign," the female pressured, still grinning like the cat that swallowed a canary, "You can give Cleo the slap in the face she needs! Me and my girls will take ruling the school very seriously, unlike her."

"No thanks, because even if Cleo and I haven't gotten off on the right foot. Nobody deserves to be bullied, and if you want to try to kick her off her high horse, you go right ahead. I am not about to stoop down to your level," I said firmly and pushed past one of the twins.

"The names Toralei, remember it," she called after me. I continued walking until Cleo stepped in front of me. I held in a squeak of surprise and she looked at me like she was about to call down judgement on me. I should've been use to it by now; she stared at everyone like that. I still thought that if she was a mummy, she would make a great vampire.

"Anyone who doesn't like Toralei and her crew can't be that bad," she finally broke the silence, my eyebrow raised and she rolled her eyes. "I still don't like you, like at all, but you should consider joining the squad. Just to show those has been's up; they've just worn out their welcome in the squad."

"But, I mean what I said I don't want to join the Cheerleading squad," I replied, clutching my books to my chest a bit tighter.

"If you want Clawd to take a second glance at you, you should consider it. I'm already over him, you can go ahead and do whatever you want, but if you do like him...I will help...I suppose," Cleo looked me up and down before snapping and holding her hand out. Julia appeared out of virtually nowhere and handed her a pamphlet. "Here, take it, it shows you our cheer and when tryouts start, for next year at least."

I took it, knowing that she wouldn't take no for an answer. "Why are you being nice to me?"

Cleo looked a tad surprised at the fact that I had spoken; she placed a hand on her hip. "I heard what you said to Toralei…and you're right. Nobody deserves to be bullied…and one might…construe that how I've been acting towards you and your friends might be…bullying."

I gave her a hesitant smile, "If it means anything. I forgive you."

To my surprise, she returned the smile hesitantly but it vanished and she straightened. "Of course you do!" With that she turned on her heel and stalked away. I stared at the pamphlet before tucking it into my textbooks and walked to Home Ec.

^v^ ^v^

Clawdeen waited for me at my locker after English. Frankie and Abbey waved as I walked away from them and over to her. I pushed my Home Ec binder into my locker and grabbed my bag. She waited patiently and quietly as I grabbed my things and shut my locker. My father couldn't pick me up after school that day due to conflicting schedule with meetings and work. He told my uncle to pick me up, but after some convincing, he was going to go for a drive around town before picking me up before I got into the cul-de-sac. Samantha was still home and I knew she wouldn't hesitate to tell my father.

We left the school and before we could start our trek back to our cul-de-sac there was a honk.

Clawd waved at us and Clawdeen rushed to the car, looking relieved. We both jumped into the back, since Deuce was in the front. "Thanks, Clawd," I smiled at him and he nodded back with a smile. The ride was mostly silent and Clawdeen was looking at my homework. The cheerleading pamphlet slid out and landed on her lap. She lifted it up and read it.

"Where did you get this? Cleo only gives these out to people she likes or are good at cheerleading," she said looking at me in confusion. I tucked a loose piece of hair behind my hair.

"I was a cheerleader at Belfry Prep…and she gave it to me," as soon as I said it Clawdeen growled. I flinched away and Clawd growled back at her. Clawdeen calmed down, she held the pamphlet like it was contaminated.

"What the hell, Draculaura! I thought you and her were worst enemies?" she snapped tossing the pamphlet at me.

"I'm not going to join!" I snapped back, crossing my arms over my chest, "If you haven't forgotten, I'm not going to be here next year!"

"It'd be pretty hot if she joined cheerleading," Deuce commented and everyone in the car turned to glare at him, he laughed and held his hands up. "Whoa, calm down guys. I'm not interested in Draculaura like that!"

"Don't worry, Deuce," I reached over and touched his shoulder; "You can let me down the hard way. I won't take it personally."

He laughed, but the other two weren't done with the conversation. I told Clawd to let me out before we reached the cul-de-sac, which took some convincing, but he finally pulled over. He turned around before I got out and gave his sister a look.

"Clawdeen, you can't really stop her from wanting to join Cheerleading, if she wants to let her," he shrugged and dodged a punch thrown at him from Clawdeen.

"You are an annoying older brother! How could you just support her becoming buddy-buddy with your bitchy ex-girlfriend?" Clawdeen asked unbuckling her seat belt.

"The day Cleo and I become best friends is the day Valentine just stops wanting me as a mate," I placed my hand on Clawdeen's arm. I don't know if she knew exactly how impossible that was but she calmed down quite a bit.

I thanked Clawd for the ride before climbing out and waving as the car drove into the cul-de-sac. I waited for a handful of minutes before my uncle pulled up and I climbed in. Our plan was more or less successful as we pulled up and saw my father's car there. Had he lied that he wasn't able to pick me up, or did he just get home? I wondered if that was the case, did he see me get out of Clawd's car?

I prayed to every god I knew the name of that he didn't as I headed up the steps and into the house. My father walked up to me and smiled. "Samantha said that since you will be leaving back to Romania after this school year ends, we will be holding our wedding before then," he pulled me close and kissed my forehead. He pulled away, but held me at arm length, "Then you'll be getting married. I'm so happy for you, love," he reached up and stroked my cheek, his thumb brushing against the birthmark on my cheek. I looked into his eyes, seeing that there was pure happiness in them. I closed my eyes.

"I'm happy for you, Dad," I pulled him into a hug so he wouldn't be able to tell how I really felt.


	13. Wedding Preparation

By the end of the week, my father had lifted my punishment and allowed me to leave the house. I just couldn't go anywhere with Clawd or Clawdeen. On the night of the game, my father had insisted that I go to a family dinner, and had to text a quick apology to Clawdeen, asking her to apologize to Clawd as well. During the dinner, Samantha announced that I was to be one of her bridesmaids. She listed off a few other people, and my father looked slightly irritated but kept quiet at a few of the names.

The next day, I was getting measured for a bridesmaids dress. Everything seemed to be going by so fast. The other women were gushing over how everyone looked in their dresses, while I stood beside Clawdeen's mother, who somehow got roped into being one of the bridesmaids.

The dresses that Samantha had chosen for the wedding were elegant, I had to admit that. Though, I assumed that the colour was chosen by my father. They were a deep red colour. Samantha gushed at how adorable I looked in it. The clerk emphasised how we would look by putting my hair up in a bun, draping a necklace about my neck, and adding a bracelet.

The other girls tried on the dress and Samantha gushed at how they looked in them as well. She then went to get dressed up in her wedding dress. Mrs. Wolf pushed a loose curl behind her ear and sighed quietly.

She leaned over and barely moved her mouth to speak, "If it was my father marrying her, I would've torn up my house..."

I copied her and leaned towards her, speaking quietly, I kept a smile on my face so that no one knew we weren't very happy to be here. "Well, she is a human; I only have to put up with her for another forty years." Mrs Wolf laughed and shook her head. "When I got married there wasn't any of this frivolity," she sighed, "It was me and Clawrk, standing beneath a willow tree speaking to a priest whose religion we stopped believing in long ago."

"That sounds beautiful," I sighed, placing my hands over my heart, "and romantic! Did you wear a beautiful dress?"

"The best that we could afford at the time," she smiled down at me, "I still have it. Clawdeen wants to wear it when she gets married, but I'm sure she'll figure out a way to make it her own."

I could only dream of wearing a dress that my mother wore. I still had it back in my closet, shoved in a box to protect it from the elements. It was a simple, shapeless white tunic. Nothing like the dress Samantha picked out.

The dress was a huge ball gown dress, with so many details and glitter and bling that I couldn't find a single place to focus on. Yet her friends gushed over it and when they were finished she turned to us and smiled, waiting for something. I smiled falsely back at her.

"You look lovely," I answered knowing that was what she wanted to hear. She walked over to me in her dress and hugged me tightly.

"Thank you, Laura," she pulled away and smiled before walking back over to the mirror and looking at herself. The wedding was less than a month away, and I was dreading it. I had been to four of his weddings before and each was the same. I was always the Maid of Honour because my father made me be. I always had to pick out a present that I thought suited my new mother so I always gave them dresses. I always had to lavish my new stepmother in compliments and make sure everyone of importance knew of her.

Though I doubt that any of high vampire society would even think about going to a Vampire-Human wedding.

"Do you know who the groom's men are?" I asked Harriet, watching as she unconsciously scratched where the lace was meeting her skin.

"My husband, Clawd, Viktor, your uncle, and I think Cleo's dad was asked but the man said he didn't want to be involved with the wedding," she replied with a shrug, and then laughed, "Don't look so confused. My husband and your father get along fine, as long as they aren't talking about anything of importance."

"I was just surprised that my father hadn't asked anyone else to be his groomsmen," I replied and looked over at Samantha. Who was trying on different veils to see which one matched her dress the best.

"Can I get out of this dress now? I need to get back to the B and B before nightfall, Clawrk is taking me out to dinner," she tugged at the bracelet.

"Go, I doubt Samantha will even notice, she's too fond of herself right now to notice anything else. I'll cover for you, Mrs. Wolf," I grinned and waved as she thanked me and ducked into the dressing room.

When she came back out she squeezed my shoulder, "Call me Harriet."

I smiled and she headed over to pay. As she left, her name filtered through my mind. Harriet...Clawrk…

I turned around to ask her something, but she was already gone. I felt a tiny bit of hope build in my chest, but before I could get up and hurry out after her, Samantha pulled me towards the mirror, gushing about how cute I looked and began talking about how much fun we'd have as mother and daughter. This was her moment, and I didn't want to ruin it by saying I didn't think of her as a mother. Not while I was nearly sixteen hundred years older than her. I declined to stand in front of the mirror with her, telling her that it was her moment and she should take the time to enjoy herself.

Watching her, the thoughts of Harriet fled my mine. Next year this would be me, except I wouldn't be gushing over everything, and I wouldn't be happy and the people I want as my brides maids wouldn't be standing with me. I wouldn't be marrying someone who loves me as much as I love them either.

The optimist in me knew that eventually, I would end up finding happiness in my marriage. I would forget the fleeting friendship I had with the people here, and be able to enjoy my life back in Romania like I always wanted.

Right?

After the girls were done with their shopping, I was allowed to take off the dress. However, since I was the Maid of Honour, Samantha was demanding that I went around and help her pick out some final touches for the wedding. Flower arrangements and things like that. It took all day, and when we returned to the house I was exhausted, so much shopping, so many choices! Samantha had compared two nearly identical shades for nearly thirty minutes at one point, and both clashed with the colour arrangement she had picked out! If it wasn't for me, I knew that she wouldn't have seen the errors in her choice. My uncle helped me and Samantha store things away in an extra room since my father wasn't allowing himself to see anything that his soon-to-be-bride bought for the wedding. He told her that he wanted her to have complete control, and he was a control freak. Part of that was true, but I also knew that after having four other weddings, he just didn't care about the event anymore.

I headed over to the Wolf's house and rang the doorbell. Clawd opened it and smiled, "What's up?" he asked leaning against the doorframe.

"You know how my father's getting married and you guys are invited?" I asked, clasping my hands behind my back. I felt my face heating up, and averted my gaze.

"Are you here to tell me we don't have to go?" he asked, clenching his fists in excitement. I shook my head and he dropped his hands and sighed.

"You're a groomsman," I giggled, "You have to go."

"I know, I already tried to weasel my way out," he stepped out of the house. Shutting the door and motioning over to the porch swing. I sat down, and he plopped down beside me, making the swing jerk back. "I don't know why he would want me as a groomsman either."

"That's actually why I came over," I admitted, "I wanted to ask you if you knew why."

His eyebrows shot up, "I don't think anyone could know why Dracula does anything. I mean, why did he kill his father to secure the throne before the war? Why did he move here instead of moving Samantha to Romania? From what I've heard, she doesn't have as many connections here as you guys do in Romania?"

I fell silent, staring into the darkening street. He was right. Why didn't we stay in Romania? Transylvania was the hub for all Monsters in the world, and the seat of power for the vampires. My father could've changed Samantha into a vampire and easily introduced her to our world. My father had never changed his mind about where he wanted to live. He moved my mother and myself to Romania, then Dacia, instead of staying in Rome with us. With the other brides, even though they all came from different parts of the world, he stayed in Romania.

Suddenly, I remembered something. The other brides. Did they even know another woman was getting married to my father, what had he told them? If they didn't know, and found out they would come to America without my father's permission. When they figured out that he had moved for a woman he barely knew longer than a year, they would be furious, and –

"Draculaura?" he asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

"Oh, yes, sorry?"

"I asked you if any of your Romanian friends are coming for your dad's wedding," he asked, looking slightly amused. "Though, you totally zoned out for a second."

I felt my cheeks heating, "Sorry," I looked at the ground before continuing, "Yes, my friends, Gory, Bram, and Elizzabat, will be coming."

"What about…what's his name? Valentine?"

I played with the edge of my skirt, "Things are…complicated between us, and I'd rather he not come. I know my father has already invited him, and he's going to show up."I let out a sigh, and straightened, "but that's the way the bat hangs, I suppose."

"Why don't you break up with him then?" Clawd asked, "Cleo and I broke up because our relationship wasn't what either of us wanted it to be. If you don't love him anymore, break up with him."

I opened my mouth and then closed it. It was more complicated than that, but I didn't want to worry him. "My father will just push us together; ending a four or so hundred year relationship is nothing to sneeze at."

"What if you had a date to your father's wedding?" he asked, "I'm in the wedding party, you're in the wedding party. Let's just go together."

My cheeks flushed, "But –"

"But nothing, if you're worried about your father, I doubt he'll notice. You break up with Valentine, and I'll back you up at the wedding in case he bothers you. Unless, you really don't want to be seen with a werewolf," he added, looking away, "Or with a football jock. I mean vampire royalty is a lot better than that."

I touched his shoulder, and he looked over to me, "You're more than a jock, Clawd. I'd love to go to the wedding with you," I bit my lip, before standing up and brushed some invisible dirt off of my skirt. "Thanks for being so kind, and I'm sorry I missed your football game."

He stood up, rubbing his neck, "It was a pretty bad game anyways. Not our finest, kind of glad you didn't come to see our total annihilation," he laughed. I giggled, and stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

This time, I didn't leave right away, and saw the faint red tinge of his cheek. I swallowed thickly, "It's getting dark, and I should probably get back home. Thanks again, Clawd," I dipped my head and hurried quickly off the porch.

That was the second time I kissed Clawd's cheek. However, this time I didn't feel like I was cheating on Valentine. As I opened the door to my house, I made up my mind. I glanced back at the Wolf house, and saw Clawd watching me with a slight smile on his face.

I was going to break up with Valentine.

* * *

 **A/N:** Woops! Sorry I didn't upload this yesterday, it totally slipped my mind.


	14. Taking Chances

I checked my email when I awoke. There was one from Gory, and a few from Facebook. I ignored the Facebook ones and went straight to the one from Gory. She was explaining how the three of them had received invitations to her father's wedding, and how she was going to try to convince Bram to move there when they got there. The way she wrote it so nonchalantly made it sound like she barely needed to lift her finger and he would pay for a house and move in before she could ask.

I smiled; their relationship was one of the few vampire relationships where the male only had one partner. Bram was devoted to Gory, and she to him. Of course, being a vampire Bram would occasionally flirt with other vampire girls, but in the end he would never do anything besides that. I wanted that kind of relationship with Valentine, but I knew that would never happen.

That thought almost made my nonexistent blood boil. If he really wanted to be _my_ mate, he would have to accept the fact that I do not want to be in a polygamous relationship with him. Or with anyone. That is why I didn't see myself with anyone, ever. I would rather live out my life alone than get married just for the sake up bowing to my husband's every whim and becoming like my father's three brides. That wasn't the life for me. It never would be.

She went on to say that they would be flying out Friday, so they would arrive Saturday night. That gave me a few days to figure out how I wanted to break up with Valentine. A text seemed too impersonal, I'd lose my will if I phoned, and I defiantly did _not_ want to wait until he got here.

I settled for an email.

A _long_ email. Probably longer than I needed it to be, but the words kept flowing forth from my brain and onto the computer that I couldn't stop. I spoke of happier times, and I told him that we had changed so much since we first met, that staying together was too much for the both of us. We needed to find people who were more like ourselves, he needed a vampire who embraced who they were, and I needed someone who would love me for me, and not want to 'heal me' because of my qualms and inability to drink blood. I sent it off, and prayed that was the end of it.

When I woke up Saturday morning, I still hadn't received any hint that Valentine had read my email. No response, no message from Bram, Gory, or Elizzabat asking me why I had broken up with him. Nothing.

It made me nervous, and to make matters worse, my father and Samantha were going away for a pre-honeymoon. To get away from the stress of the wedding planning. I wondered if my father was going to tell Samantha he was a vampire, or change her or something. I hoped he would, if she was a vampire, maybe my father would grow tired of her and she'd befriend the other wives, and stay away from me.

I scolded myself for thinking that badly of the woman. If she was to marry my father, then I should try to be happy for them, as much as I didn't want to be.

I slipped out of bed and headed down the stairs. There was a note taped to the kitchen door. My father and Samantha had already left and my father gave me permission to have friends over if it was alright with my uncle. I crumpled the piece of paper up and recycled it.

After eating breakfast, I headed back upstairs to get ready for the day, but noticed that the door to the library was open. Curiosity got the better of me and I headed over.

I opened the door to reveal my uncle was sitting at the desk, surrounded by books and scrolls. Moving closer, I saw that they were all about the Van Helsing's and their string of decedents. I wondered how long he had been working on this, red ink crossed out the Van Helsing's wiped out by vampires, and black ink crossed out ones that were killed or died in other ways. Or at least that is what I thought, since the original Van Helsing was crossed out in red. Perhaps the black in meant that they were missing or had no idea of their bloodline, while the red meant they were dead or killed? I didn't know.

I sat down and watched him as he wrote with a quill. Even if there was better writing equipment now, I still caught my family writing with old fashion tools more often than not. He was very versed as he scribbled in his messy handwriting with the ink, and his eyes didn't stray from the paper. His fingers stained with black and red ink, and some blotches on his sleeves and a smear on his cheek told me he was entirely focused on what he was doing, and didn't seem to notice that his hands were covered in fresh and old ink.

It seemed like ages before he placed the quill down, moved the book aside, and glanced up at me. His ruby coloured eyes were very serious and he rubbed his face.

"You've always been a patient, child," he let his hands rest on the table before organizing some loose papers. He picked up a mirror and turned it to face me; all I saw was a floating earring. "It is very...peculiar that Samantha hasn't noticed any of our vampireistic traits. None of us can be seen in the mirrors, and we don't eat a hell of a lot. Your eyes are constantly pink, while your father and I both have red eyes if we just woke up, stressed, or angry. So why hasn't she called us on it yet?" he seemed to be talking to himself as he looked back at the Van Helsing charts. He idly tapped the cover of a journal with the tip of his finger, "I could be going about this all wrong, she could be some type of Monster...but I've spent years documenting the Monsters after the war..." he trailed off leaning back. "She is human. The closest thing that she could be if she wasn't human, would be a Mummy. Since they are technically humans, but I'm sure Vlad would've noticed if she had linen wraps to keep her from turning to dust, and he would've corrected us when we call her a human."

He rested his jaw on his fist and stared at the family tree for a few minutes. His finger trailed down until it got to the more recent dates. He stopped a generation back. "We'd be able to tell if she was a Van Helsing," he mumbled to himself, "She isn't dumb enough not to notice the traits..."

"What is Samantha's last name?" I blurted suddenly. My uncle jumped slightly, as if he had forgotten I was there.

"Samantha Harker," he muttered looking at an old tome again. I stared at him before rubbing my temple.

"Harker. As in Jonathon Harker?" I mumbled his eyes shot up to me. "You know the guy in the Dracula novel who worked as a solicitor and worked with the other four vampire hunters?"

"If you are thinking this Jonathon Harker was ever known to your father, that is wrong," he shot down the idea and looked back at his work, "Harker isn't even in the Hunter family heraldry," he turned another tome towards me, waving to the four crests. "See?"

"Bram Stoker wasn't far off in his story of vampire lore," I shot back with a raised eyebrow, "Harker may have been actually involved with Van Helsing, and therefore we don't have one clan of monster hunters, but five."

"I don't want to believe it, and it'll take years to figure out if what you think is true. If Samantha is a vampire hunter, we have to figure it out before she gets married too your father. Which is in a couple days," Uncle Vlad said shutting a book and looking at me. He drank deeply from a cup that smelled like blood, I got a bit light headed, but turned my attention back to the books. As long as I didn't think about it too hard, or didn't see it. I was fine. He wiped his mouth immediately after he lowered the cup. "So...now you have to worry about some crazy bitch who might be trying to kill your father, as well as the fact that you will be wed forcefully in the next year."

I looked at him, "You have to worry about it too, and you let a Monster Hunter into your house. Especially after you've done so much research," I stood up, "What other Monster spent it's time hunting and killing vampires?"

"Werewolves," he answered immediately, "and how could I have known that there was a fifth family? All the crests and manuscripts only detail four! I single-handedly catalogued every single type of monster, stood by your father's side in the war of monsters, and between the vampires and werewolves, and then spent the last twenty years building this cul-de-sac up!" he huffed, and closed a tome. Amusement in his eyes, not truly offended by my words. I giggled.

"To bad that we don't live beside werewolves, who also would have records or information about Monster Hunters, especially of the families that were involved in trying to murder my father," I shrugged and tapped my fingers on a book on werewolves, "You were thinking too hard on this, you should really take up reading."

"Go away and stop being a smart ass," he waved me off as he stood up and grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair.

I looked at the scroll of the descendents of Van Helsing, "I thought my father and they worked out a deal that the Van Helsing line can only have one child each generation? Why is there two?" I tapped the picture of them.

"I don't know if he is alive still, I'm still trying to find out if he is, and if he is I'll have to see if he knows about his past or not. Chances are, if he knows about vampires and what he will do, and then he won't be alive in the near future. Your father will condemn him."

My uncle left the room before the conversation could excel into a huge debate over sparing the lives of others, as I usually did with my elders. I turned the family tree towards myself and stared at the person who was off the radar.

After a while of doing my own research, someone entered the room. I heard their heartbeat faintly and knew it was a werewolf. I didn't even have to turn around to know it was male from the sound of the breathing. They didn't attack or advance any further, so I knew they were a friend. That narrowed it all down to Clawd or Clawrk, and I doubt Clawrk would leave the house if my Uncle was over.

"Hello, Clawd," I called barely a few seconds after he had entered.

"Hello," he walked in, coming up behind me. He stood silently as I read a section of the book; he placed his hand on the table and leaned down, reading along with me. It didn't bother me, and I finished reading before closing the book and turning around. Looking up at him with a smile.

"What's up?" I asked, as he pulled out a chair beside me and sat down. Picking up Van Helsing's family tree and examining it.

"So your dad might be in danger?" he asked, gesturing with the paper.

"My Uncle thinks she is," I replied, I still wasn't sure. She very well could be, but Samantha seemed too…she just didn't seem like the type of person who would be a Monster Hunter. "This is all his research."

"You don't sound worried," he replied, eyebrows coming together. He looked so much like his father did. I sighed, and stood up, banishing the image from my mind before collecting some books into a pile and lifting them up.

"That's because even if she is a vampire hunter, she is just a human. Who knows a lot about vampires? Compared to my father, she'll be like a small toddler waving around a rubber toy, he may get hurt, but he won't be killed by her," I explained walking over and started putting the books away. Clawd stood slightly behind me, and helped me put some of them away. Though when he was finished, he didn't retract his hand from where it was leaning on the bookshelf. I turned around, leaning against the bookcase, and stared up at him curiously.

"Could you handle her?" he asked quietly. I blinked, not understanding how I was involved in any danger. She would kill Dracula, and my Uncle would kill her, before taking me into hiding. It was a plan that my father had in place with Uncle Vlad since I was small. If anything should happen to my father, my Uncle would flee with me into hiding. Unless I was old enough to become Queen. "If she's after Dracula, it would be easier to get to him if you were hurt," he explained, "If she does end up being a Monster Hunter, could you handle her?"

"I can handle myself," I met his stare evenly, "and I'd never let my pain put my father in danger."

"She wouldn't be able to touch you," he touched my shoulder, I looked up at him. The moment our eyes connected, I reached out without thinking and touched his jaw.

"Depends on how she tries, if she threatens someone I care for...then I won't be able to stop myself," I answered, before realizing what I had implied and slipping away from him. What was with me? I couldn't be falling for a werewolf! Especially Clawdeen's brother. How would his parents react, how would my father react? I busied my hands, straightening some papers. Clawd didn't move from his spot as I tidied up. When I turned around he was staring at me still. The same look in his eyes from before. I walked over to him and smiled slightly. He touched my hair with one of his hands before leaning down.

I stepped away, his eyes filled with rejection and he pulled away. "Clawd, look-"

"Its fine, Draculaura," he tried to pass it off by laughing and rubbing his neck, "You still have feelings for Valentine. I get it," his tone turned sour near the end.

"I broke up with him," I blurted out, and he gave me a surprised look. "It's just that…" I averted my eyes, feeling a bit embarrassed that I was admitting this, "If Samantha is a Monster Hunter. Do you really think she would stop with my family? I'm sure she's figured out that the entire cul-de-sac is full of Monsters. I don't want you, or your family, to be hurt," I defended, not meeting his eyes.

"How can I get hurt?" he whispered, taking a hold of my chin and tilting it up until my head angled up towards his. I didn't meet his eyes still. It was silent; his fingers just held my head up until my eyes finally met his. "My parents have fought in wars; they've taught my entire family to defend themselves. Samantha doesn't stand a chance."

"I don't want to be hurt either," I whispered, looking at him. Almost begging him not to try anything.

"I would never, ever, hurt you," he leaned forwards slightly. My stomach dropped, and I felt slightly weak in the legs. He was so different. So foreign. Unlike Valentine he was warm, welcoming, and friendly. He didn't want to rush even a simple kiss. Valentine didn't even wait until our first date to kiss me, and it wasn't even a small peck on the lips.

My mind automatically thought back to another kiss. Another kiss that was warm. So long ago, that I hadn't thought of it since. That kiss had been warm, but it was full of negative feelings, and it was at the wrong time, with the wrong person.

Yet, this moment. It felt…right. It wasn't rushed; he didn't make the first move, just waited for me to make up my mind. Patient. I leaned forwards hesitantly. Not knowing. Not sure about this. After what seemed like forever I finally let our lips meet. It was a simple kiss, nothing fancy. However, it was so different than any kiss Valentine had given me. It wasn't like my forbidden kiss from centuries ago.

This kiss was warm, it made my knees weak, it made my arms wrap around his neck. It made me hungry for more. It was sweet, and innocent, yet fiery and passionate. Though, we broke away quickly, both of our cheeks bright red. I released his neck, hands trailing down his shoulders, feeling his heart pounding beneath my fingers.

"That was..." I trailed off, searching his golden eyes for the right word.

"Wow..." he murmured, I nodded with a giggle. He pulled me forwards into a hug and I welcomed it.

"Don't...say anything to anyone about that...please," I whispered after a while, "My dad will probably maim you."

Clawd chuckled, stroked my hair and pressed a kiss into my head. "I won't, I promise."

"Isn't this a cute sight, a girl and her dog" a growl interrupted. I jumped away from Clawd and looked up.


	15. The Boyfriend

Valentine stood at the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest. Elizzabat, Bram, and Gory stood behind him. Gory looked apologetic, while Elizzabat, and Bram both looked between me and Clawd. Confusion on their faces. Clawd growled back at Valentine, I doubted he knew that this was Valentine. The two stared each other down as Gory walked straight past Valentine, completely ignoring the two and hugging me. She kissed my cheek and pulled away smiling.

"Draculaura, isn't this weird?" she asked, "your father leaves Romania and in two weeks he's getting hitched!"

"Not that weird," Bram replied, still staring cautiously at Clawd and Valentine. I touched Clawd's arm and Valentine hissed.

"Clawd, this is Gory, Bram, and Elizzabat," I waved at the three of them. Gory held out her hand immediately, but her eyes were cold, Clawd took it and they barely shook hands before Gory removed her hand.

"Sorry, I am not a big fan of werewolves, but I can get use to them," she apologized; I wasn't sure who she was apologizing to however. That was quite the lie, she had spent a long time amongst werewolves at the beginning of the war, but that was a secret that we kept between ourselves. Bram just held up a hand in greeting before pulling Gory close to him. Elizzabat looked a bit nervous about the situation, and didn't say anything.

"That is Val-"

"I am her future husband, and you are the man who shall never lay a finger on her again," Valentine threatened walking forwards and jabbing Clawd in the chest with a finger. I winced, but didn't move away.

"Actually –" I started, but Valentine cut me off.

"Do you understand me, or do I need to speak in slower words?" he asked, enunciating his words more. Clawd bristled at the words, and gently pushed me behind him.

"I can hear you, just fine. What I don't understand is how you think that you can control who she wants to spend her time with," Clawd growled so darkly that Gory reached forwards and pulled me further away from the two of them.

"She is my future wife, and my mate. I can tell her to do whatever the hell I want," Valentine hissed, his fangs extending. Clawd snorted and rolled his eyes.

"She may be your mate, but are you her mate?" Clawd lowered his voice. Valentine's eyes darkened and he shoved Clawd away roughly.

"I think you need to go into obedience school, dog," Valentine hissed grabbing my arm, "because you need to learn your place." Without another word he tugged me out of the room. The fact that he was manhandling me startled me into complacency until we reached the stairs. I pulled away and stepped away from him just as Uncle Vlad stepped into the house with Clawrk.

Clawrk met my eyes, and then they flickered over to Valentine. I saw the wheels turning in his head as he tried to connect a name to a face, and trying to process what was happening all at once.

"Draculaura?" Uncle Vlad stepped forwards, his back straightening. His eyes were on Valentine instead of me. He wasn't sure what was happening either. I nodded, not trusting my voice.

"Where's Clawd?" Clawrk asked, ignoring Valentine and walking up behind Uncle Vlad.

"That dog?" Valentine adjusted his suit and jabbed a thumb towards the hallway.

"That dog?" Clawrk repeated, and growled. "Boy, you better learn some manners-"

"Why? You are hundreds of years younger than me, and besides you are just a mangy canine who should learn its place," Valentine sneered, and then looked Clawrk up and down. Clawd came barreling out of the library, Bram trying to stop him until he noticed the situation in the foyer. They both stopped, but Valentine looked at Clawd and then turned back to Clawrk, "I suppose you are the one who impregnated some unfortunate woman with that mongrel?"

Clawrk launched forwards faster than I had ever seen him move, and slammed his fist straight into Valentine's mouth. He flew back, stumbled on the stairs and fell down. Clawrk pulled me away from Valentine, and dragged me back to my Uncle. I felt much like an object, being dragged back and forth like this.

I saw Clawd's look of surprise at his father's outright violence and anger.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Clawrk demanded, his voice barely containing his anger. "You come into _my_ territory, you insult my family, and you hurt _your_ princess? Someone better give me a reason why you are here, and they better give it fast."

"He's invited to Dracula's wedding," Gory blurted out, "He's Draculaura's mate, Valentine."

"We broke up," I muttered quietly, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the situation and being put on the spot like this. Clawrk looked between me and Valentine, before jabbing a thumb towards him.

"He's the romantic lover in America?" he whispered in Romanian. I gave a slight nod and Clawrk snorted. "You could do better."

"Close your mouth," Valentine demanded, standing back up, blood dripping from a cut on his lip. My head swam.

Clawrk's eyebrow rose and he stepped forwards. "Why don't you make me?"

I grabbed Clawrk's arm before anything could escalate. There was nothing more dangerous than threatening an Alpha, and I knew there would be blood shed if the situation was quelled quickly . "Let me talk to him," I whispered back in Romanian, "Give me ten minutes."

Uncle Vlad looked at Valentine, "Hear that? You have ten minutes to speak with my niece. Once she says she's done, you are to leave my house. Or I will let Dracula know how you treated his daughter."

I stared up at Valentine who look like he was about to start foaming at the mouth. Though, he collected himself and smoothed out his jacket. There were no words passed between the males, but Valentine took my hand instead of my arm this time and led me up the stairs. More gently this time. I glanced back; Uncle Vlad was waving towards the library.

The moment we turned down the hallway, Valentine dropped my hand like it was a hot coal and returned his grip to my upper arm. He shoved me into my room before walking in. I stood tall, and smoothed out my skirt. The door closed with a click behind him and it went dead silent in the room. No words passed between us. Not a single thing was said. His eyes were dark and cold as he stared down at me. The look I saw my father give his wives whenever they 'teased' about killing me.

He moved forwards until I was forced to crane my neck to look up at him. Still nothing was said. His fingers reached up and took a hold of my jaw, and then in one quick movement he leaned down and sank his fangs into my neck. My eyes widened and I froze. This had never happened before. I had never had a vampire even try to take blood from me. It was unheard of. Of course there were love bites, where they bite, but never took blood. He was drinking. I could feel my blood leaving my body.

When the confusion and shock wore off, I felt his hands trailing down my back and over my hips. I knew what he wanted. I pushed him away roughly, feeling the sharp pain as his teeth tore from my skin. My fingers flew to my neck and I hissed at him. His eyes darkened and he advanced forwards. I shook my head and walked backwards.

Blood was dripping down my arm and confusion swept over me once again. Why was I bleeding? I should've healed by now. I bumped into my vanity and pulled my hand away. Dark blood covered my hand and I started to feel woozy. "W-What?"

"Vampire bites don't heal very nicely," Valentine said, and with his southern accent any other time I would've blushed because of how sexual that sounded. His hands grabbed my hips and pressed me against the vanity so I was trapped. "Marking you as mine. You are mine, aren't you?" his anger seemed to seep away and was just replaced with lust. Any other time I would've called it love, but I knew what he was after, and he wouldn't get it. "Draculaura," his fingers dug slightly into my hips, "You. Are. Mine."

"No!" I snapped, pushing him away, scared of him "Didn't you get my email? We are done. I-I don't love you anymore!"

He let go of me immediately and stalked away. Without his support I crumpled to my knees, and clutched my head. I didn't know if I was being woozy from the sight and scent blood or the fact that I was losing it. "It's the fucking werewolf," Valentine threw his jacket at the door and growled. "You're lust for him will die after we go back to Romania. It'll die off before your father's marriage. We are going together after all. Once he sees that you are mine," he pointed at himself and looked back at me. "He'll get the message."

"I'm going with him, he asked me, and I said yes. We are through, Valentine," I muttered, pulling myself back up by the chair. His eyes snapped to me and he walked forwards and grabbed my shoulder.

"You are _my_ mate. Therefore, sugar, we are going to your fathers wedding together," he lifted me up and took me into the bathroom. "Now, all that blood is ruining your dress," he kicked the door behind him and placed me on the counter.

"No," I shook my head, his eyebrow raised as he plugged the bath.

"No? Would you rather take a shower, love?"

"I am not going with you," I slid off the counter. "I can clean myself up, you can leave," I turned my back on him and stared at myself in the mirror. Ignoring him completely. I checked the two holes on my neck that still weren't healing. His hands ran up my arms and onto my neck, he pressed his lips against the bite mark and then bit me again.

"Baby, you are going to regret going with that dog," he whispered before leaving the bathroom. My fingers gripped the countertop as my head spun again.

What happened to him? Why wasn't he the kind guy I remembered?

I cried out in Romanian. Not remembering what I said, before I collapsed and hit my elbow against the ground. I laid there. Hearing the bathtub fill up with water. My eyes fluttered as I continued to lose blood. Weakening. Muscles relaxing and eyes closing. Was I dying? Did he plan this? I couldn't. He was...

I blacked out, feeling cold and alone on the tile floors.

When my sense started coming back to me, I tasted blood. Screams ripped through me, and I struggled. Was I killing someone? Had I not died and gone into blood lust instead? The blood stopped and the blackness returned. A calming noise flowed through my ears and warmth surrounded me. The blood returned and I screamed. Though no longer was I able to reel away from the source. Terror washed through me. I was draining someone. I was killing someone. I thrashed but the warmth strengthened and I couldn't do anything.

The darkness and pain in my abdomen faded. I curled into the warmth and whimpered.

When I woke, my Uncle was staring down at me in concern. I was lying on my bed. It was just a dream. Nothing more than a dream. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. When I went to close my eyes again, feeling exhausted, I tasted blood on my lips and retched. Someone managed to get a bucket up in time, and I clutched it. Emptying the contents of my stomach.

"Why did you think it was a good idea to feed her blood?" my uncle asked whoever else was in the room, "It might work for a bit, but her body rejects it."

It wasn't a dream.

My hand flew to my neck and I felt faint scars from where I was bite. The warmth was still wrapped around me and I looked around. Clawd, Bram, and Gory were sitting on armchairs, all asleep. Clawrk stood on the opposite side of my bed, arms crossed and staring darkly at my Uncle. As if blaming him for what happened? My Uncle quickly noticed that I had fully awakened and shone a light in my eyes. I flinched and looked away.

"You know what happened," Uncle Vlad said, as he did a few more checks. "You flew down here, red eyes and blood flowing from your neck. Everyone was confused, and you tried to attack Valentine, but then you pulled away once you bit him. Almost like you realized what you were doing. Everyone was for sedating you and forcing you to drink blood from a bag, but Clawd here stepped forwards. Pressed his wrist to your mouth and made you drink." I stared at him before wetting my lips and glancing at Clawd. Still asleep. "He didn't fall asleep because you drank too much, you didn't drink that much. Barely any, but then you fell asleep in his arms. He's chivalrous. Don't know how your father would've reacted though..."

"Where is Valentine?" I whispered, looking at Clawrk. My Uncle made a noise.

"He came down, and said that you guys talked things out, and that everything was a big misunderstanding. Though, he wouldn't say more about it. He was very worried about you. Elizzabat convinced him to go back to the hotel they are staying at, he kept picking fights with Clawd and Clawrk, getting on even my nerves. Elizzabat eventually managed to drag him out and take her to the hotel herself. Where she's been making sure he stays there," Uncle Vlad was somber, and he sat down on the bed, "What happened?"

I looked away from him. I doubt he would've believed me. Maybe he would say he did, but I doubt he would've actually. He probably thought some rouge vampire broke into the bathroom and bit me. I sat up and my vision blacked out momentarily. My Uncle placed his hand on my shoulder and sighed, hooking up a blood bag to my arm.

When I didn't say anything, he met Clawrk's gaze and then said, "Draculaura, if you don't want to talk to me about it, don't. Tell someone though; sometimes you are too close to the danger to notice. Others will help you." I nodded and he stood up, "I believe you are in good hands, werewolves I trust more than vampires right now. This is why Clawrk has been informed not to let anyone but myself and your father into this room."

Once again I nodded and he smiled slightly then turned and left the room. Clawrk looked over his shoulder at the sleeping kids, before he sat down on the bed. "What happened?"

"I…I don't want to talk about it," I admitted quietly, "I can – I can deal with it."

Clawrk frowned but nodded, accepting my choice. I settled into my bed, and closed my eyes. Willing myself to sleep through to the next day so I could forget this all happened. Though immediately they opened. I felt safe, but I didn't like it. It almost felt too safe. My body was relaxed, but my mind kept scaring me. Replaying that dream from weeks ago. Replaying it and replaying it. Different parts. Mostly the fighting parts. Then it settled onto the better portion of the dream and I relaxed finally.

My head lolled to the side and I sighed softly. When I breathed in I froze. That scent. The taste of blood that lingered in my mouth. Was so familiar but so foreign at the same time. However, I was probably just high from the blood and my eyes drifted shut. It was nothing.

* * *

 **A/N:** Woo! Some backstory filtering in here. Remember to check out the prequel to this story called Humble Beginnings, and don't forget to drop a review down below~!


	16. Snakes and Coffee

Life was straight chaos for a week. It was as if something had picked up my life and turned it upside down on its head and watched the resulting events with amusement. My father's wedding was in a couple of days, I wondered if he truly had proposed to her only three weeks ago. Though, even if he did, my father was one of the only people I knew who could manage to plan and execute a wedding or any other event in under a month. The wedding was going to be held in the backyard, and I could hear Clawd, Deuce, and a handful of their friends help Clawrk build a raised platform that would be part of the alter during the day, and at night it would be converted into the dance floor.

There was no reason why we couldn't have the wedding outside; we were far enough away from anybody to worry about disturbing them. Plus, my father had made sure that we had plenty of alcoholic beverages, it was a good thing they hadn't planned for a venue, or else we'd have to worry about everyone getting home safe.

What was truly stressful to me, however was since I was the maid of honour, Samantha and I had to spend so much time together. Picking out color themes, choosing flowers for the bridesmaids, all that. On top of the stress from being forced to help her marry my father, I had to make sure Valentine was kept busy and away from Clawd, make sure that Clawd was busy and away from Valentine. I had to make sure that both of them were busy and not bothering me, because they wouldn't give me space if I didn't. Besides that, Clawdeen and Gory didn't get along at all, and I had to have Bram on constant watch to separate Gory from Clawdeen if things got to tense.

My patience was slowly beginning to snap, but I kept it together. I had dealt with worse stress than this; I had been through wars, for crying out loud! Yet, I swore this wedding would be the death of me. My Uncle had been hooking me up to a blood IV at night, and after Valentine attacked me, I knew I needed it, but I couldn't think long about it before getting nauseous.

I had managed to escape from the planning and was holed up in the library, pouring over my Uncles' notes of other Monsters. Every handful of moments Clawd or Valentine would come in to see what I was doing. I never hid my research from Clawd, pointing at a page in the book and excitedly telling him all about something new I found. He always listened attentively, leaning down and reading along with me. He'd tell me how things were going, and would wipe some sweat from his forehead. After a hesitant kiss to my forehead, or a brush of fingers against my shoulder, arm, or cheek, he would head back out to help.

When Valentine came to visit, I'd suddenly remember that I needed to grab something from the other room. Or I would tell him that my father had asked for him. I kept finding excuses to get him out of the room. Fearing that he would bite me again. I knew eventually, I'd have to tell my father about it, but I didn't want to interfere with his happiness. Right now, he seemed fairly over the moon about this wedding, which was very surprising.

The research did take my mind off of everything else that was going on in my life. No wonder Uncle Vlad loved his research. If I could, I would go off into the world, documenting Monsters, and writing a book about my experiences. That would be glorious. Perhaps I should write a book about my experiences in Salem?

I giggled at the thought and scribbled a little note in a pink journal I had brought into the library to write interesting facts down into.

When the door opened for the umpteenth time, I was ready to snap and I twisted around in my chair. The words 'I would prefer to be alone right now,' on my lips, but they died when I saw who it was. Deuce took a step back and held a hand up. "Whoa there, just coming by with some coffee, don't look like you want to kill me," he stepped forwards with a tray; two coffees were placed in them. I smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, Clawd and Valentine are getting on my nerves," I apologized taking the coffee when he handed it to me. "If you are sticking around, you should probably stone them," I muttered as I turned back around and stared at the books in front of me. He took a sip of his coffee and tossed the tray into the garbage. "That should go in the recycling," I suggested, but he just snorted and walked around the library looking at the books.

"What are you even doing in here? Everyone is prepping the house for the wedding that is happening in, what, two days? Yet, here you are, locked up in the library surrounded by books about slayers," he picked up a book and read it briefly. "You don't seem to be the best maid of honour right now," he sat down on the table, picking up a book and idly glancing over the cover. I leaned back and sighed.

"I'm just concerned," I admitted to him, "Have you ever felt like you needed to do something, but felt powerless to _do_ anything?" I asked him, fiddling with a paper, and then picked up the coffee and wrapped my hands around it. Deuce nodded and took off his hand, placing it on the table. The snakes hissed happily, writhing about on his head at being freed. He reached up, and one curled itself around his hand. Obviously he wasn't concerned about Samantha walking into the room at all. I wondered how the others felt in the area, having to hide who they were because a normie lived on the block.

"When my parents were getting a divorce," he answered staring at the floor, "I know the there is a side to it that I didn't know or see, but my mother one day brought home the paperwork and they had a huge fight. There wasn't anything I could do, even if I wanted to stop it. Neither has ever told me what they fought about, but my mother refuses to let me see him. Still, both my parents are alive and are not immediately threatened by any Monster Hunters or anything of the sort."

I reached over and squeezed his arm gently, and I knew that there were no words that I could say to him that would make him feel any better.

"Why are you so interested in monster slayers?" he asked, and sipped his own coffee.

"I think that there is a Monster Hunter after my father," I muttered, "but I have no proof besides pure speculation. Uncle Vlad brought the subject up, and I just want to know, you know?"

He nodded, and jumped off the table, "Who, where, what , and why?" he asked, "I mean, Clawd is much better at sniffing out clues about these things, but I'm not exactly a fan of building things out of wood."

I laughed, and shook my head, "its okay, Deuce, I need a break from my break, and anyways, I'm more interested in something else right now though. Like, why you haven't been sitting with us at lunch," he rubbed his neck and looked at the roof. A smile on his face and he chuckled.

"Wondered when someone was going to ask me about that," He muttered then looked at me, "Cleo-"

"Don't tell me, you and her are together now?" I turned the chair towards him and clasped my hands on the arms. Ready for the gossip of the century. He raised his eyebrow and laughed.

"I just feel bad for her, you know? She used to be friends with everyone on this cul-de-sac, but then after making a few mistakes she just screwed herself over. I don't think the others realize that she misses their friendship, and...Well, I think we were all wrong to be so judgemental," he glanced at me, his sunglasses masking the emotion in his eyes. I looked at the floor and bit my lip.

"I can't speak for everyone," I started cautiously, "but I am willing to give her another chance. After she apologizes to Blue, and Clawdeen. My mother used to tell me 'Never ask for forgiveness, show them that you are worthy of their forgiveness, since you are not the one wronged.'"

Deuce's eyebrows rose slightly, but then nodded. "You're awesome, Lala. I'll let Cleo know next time I see her."

I leaned on my elbow, cupping my chin in my hand. "Are you seeing her a lot?"

"You're worse than Cupid," Deuce grumbled, no venom in his voice. He tossed the book he was holding onto the table.

"So, you do like her?" I interrogated, and knew from the change of his heart rate that it was true. I grinned and clapped my hands together. This was great gossip! Oh! I paused, watching him intently as he withered under my gaze. Clawd had only just broken up with Cleo, and Deuce was Clawd's best friend. Was that the reason why he wasn't admitting that he liked the Egyptian? It was different with me and Clawd, I reasoned, we hadn't actually made any steps to being a couple. Kisses to cheeks, foreheads. Flirting, and standing a bit closer than normal. Cleo and Clawd's breakup was mutual, and Clawd wasn't diving into a best friend's ex situation. Deuce was.

"Clawd and Cleo's breakup was mutual," I informed Deuce, wondering if he knew that. From his face he did. "That means Cleo is free to go after. You should still talk to Clawd about it, of course, but if you truly like Cleo. Go for it! It'd be totes romantic!"

"How would it be romantic?" Deuce asked, snorting. He had picked up a few different items on the table beside him and placed them back down, unable to focus on anything. He was getting nervous with the conversation. I had seen him do it during Home Ec if he was getting uncomfortable, or stressed. He'd pick up an ingredient just to set it down again unable to decide what part of the recipe to start with first.

I waved a hand dismissively, "Just think about it, silly! Cleo is a socialite. She lives to be the centre of attention; a romantic gesture for her is to make her _the_ talk of the school. Clawd's best friend dating his ex, is just the kind of gossip that would spread like lightning. I'm sure Clawd would be okay with it, just talk to him."

Deuce nodded his head slowly, as if working himself up to do it. With an explosive sigh, he jumped off the table. "Draculaura, her dad didn't like Clawd when they were dating, how could he like me any better? I'm not super smart or super athletic like Clawd. I'm not stupid, but I'm more into sports that include skates than with balls."

"Whose affection are you trying to win?" I questioned, standing up and poking him in the chest. "Cleo's? Or her father's? The only one you have to prove your worth to be Cleo."

Deuce's expression was blank, his sunglasses masking the emotion in his face. He shook his head, "I guess I can talk to Clawd about it…but guys aren't like girls, we can't just bring up this sort of thing up."

I giggled, "Just ask him to talk, and then ask him if it would be cool if you were to ask Cleo out. Don't talk about feelings, or anything. Just be direct! Like Abbey would be."

He laughed, "Okay, but I wouldn't be taking advice about love from Abbey. She's a bit too direct for me."

I joined his laughter, and I heard his name being called from the front of the house. "Speaking of Clawd, you're being summoned."

With a sigh, he concealed his snakes with a hat once again. "Thanks, again" he nodded to me, "and good luck figuring out whether a Monster Hunter truly is after your father. Just don't wear yourself out about it."

I waved, making no promises, as he exited the library.

* * *

 **A/N:** This chapter is purely character development! I really like Deuce and his relationship with Cleo, so I wanted to start exploring it before we get into the action heavy sections of this story.

Also! One of the new webisodes had Gory in it, and we actually got a bit of character devleopment for her! Which is a breathe of fresh air.

Don't forget to drop a review down below :D


	17. The Wedding

The attic was dusty, as usual, but I felt more at peace up here than downstairs at the moment. People were rushing about, getting more and more tense the closer and closer to the wedding. It was only a few hours away now, and I felt a wash of sadness flow over me. I sniffed back tears, partially due to my feelings about the wedding and partially to the dust. The bats here avoided me, unlike Count Fabulous. I really wanted to cuddle my BBFF, but I knew the moment I showed my face people would be swarming me with advice, questions, scolding, wondering who was who and where did this go.

I had found a painting of my mother that was done five hundred years ago, and propped it up against the wall. Running my fingers along the curve of her face occasionally. My aunt, Justine, had sketched an image of my mother before she had died, and then had presented the complete painting to my father. I remembered seeing it and seeing the sadness and anger in my father's eyes when he saw it. That was the last time I saw the painting until I climbed up into the attic to hide away from the commotion downstairs.

Part of me felt guilty that sometimes I found myself not thinking about her for weeks or months on end. As if by forgetting to, she was dying all over again.

I had feared that my father had thrown the painting out, or had it destroyed. To know that he had just hidden it away, pleased me greatly and made me angry at the same time. If he didn't want it, I did. Once this wedding was over, I would display my mother's painting in my room. My mother did not deserve to be hidden in a dusty old attic, no one seeing her beautiful face. I wouldn't allow her to only live in the minds of the few who knew her.

The sound of the attic door being opened tore me from my thoughts, and I quickly twisted around. Ready to defend my actions against whoever found me. Uncle Vlad popped his head up, looking around and quickly pinpointing me. He sighed and took another step up into the attic before he saw the painting.

It took a moment, but he closed his mouth and tore his gaze from the painting to rest on me. "You need to get ready," he informed me, climbing the rest of the steps up into the attic. A cobweb caught on his shirt and he dusted it off with the back of his hand.

"The wedding isn't for a couple hours, I can get ready later," I brushed off his concern, turning back towards the painting.

Uncle Vlad rested his hands on my shoulders, his eyes focusing on the painting. "You have her eyes," he whispered, and squeezed my shoulders. "And her hair. I think you got your nose from your biological father, though."

I pressed my lips together, struggling not to cry. I doubted that even when I was forty thousand years old that I wouldn't feel the pure urge to cry when people spoke about my mother to me.

"I know this isn't what you want," Uncle Vlad added quietly, "but it's what your father wants, and we just have to trust that he knows what he's getting into, and if he doesn't we'll be there to help him. It isn't the first time he has fallen for a human, and I doubt it'll be the last."

"I know."

"Take solace in the knowledge that your mother will be the first and _only_ human that your father respected and cared for without wanting anything in return from the beginning. He took you two in without wanting anything from her, no money, no promise of her first born, not even requesting to feed on her. He brought her home, introduced us to her, and told us that if we ever harmed her, he would personally inflict ten times the pain she received back on us," he moved around and stood in front of me. His eyes were distant as he remembered far distant memories. "When Camilla had you, it was the first time that I had ever seen your father smile for more than a brief second. He held your tiny body in his hands, and sung you a lullaby in an ancient language. I think that was the moment when Camilla fell for your father, and she realized he had fallen for her the moment he brought her to Romania."

Tears were falling freely from my eyes. No one ever spoke about my mother to me anymore. They used to speak about her after she died, and not all of the comments were nice. 'How could she not want to become a vampire?' and other words that were used with harsh tones.

Uncle Vlad pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and allowed me to dab away my tears before speaking again. "Today is a day where we allow ourselves to be happy for him. He's truly happy, and neither of us should be the one to break that happiness."

I nodded, hiccupping. He patted my cheek, "Good girl. Let's get you downstairs and get you ready for the wedding."

Guiding me downstairs, I was quickly whisked away by Clawdeen and Frankie into my room. Once the door closed, the voices of the wedding party faded into a quiet murmur.

"Oh! This is voltageous!" Frankie gasped, clapping her hands together as Clawdeen forced me into the vanity chair. "I've never been to a wedding before; it's going to be so beautiful!"

I didn't want to burst her bubble and forced a smile, "My father is a stickler for perfection."

Clawdeen picked up a brush and snorted, "Yeah. A normie marrying a monster, that's perfection."

Frankie rolled her eyes and waved her hands dismissively as she began to pin my hair back so that Clawdeen could apply my makeup without any trouble from my hair. "It doesn't matter what you are, Clawdeen, it matters who you are. That's what my parents say. If you love someone, it shouldn't matter if they are monster, normie, female, male, or what! As long as there is love in the relationship."

Clawdeen said nothing in return, looking at a picture on her phone before turning attentively back to me and telling me to close my eyes.

"A monster and a human can get married," I spoke, trying hard not to move my face too much, "but the human should know the monster is a monster before they get married."

I felt a zap from Frankie and jumped.

"Samantha doesn't know your father is a vampire?" she asked, her eyes wide. "Oh no! That's horrible. Why hasn't he told her yet?"

"Frankie," Clawdeen complained, wiping at my eye with a makeup remover pad. "If Lala's father walked up to her and said 'yeah, I drink blood to live' would Samantha really be okay with that? The woman is already upset about Lala kissing my brother's cheek. Who knows if that's because we're not on the same level financially, or if it's because we're black."

"You're not black," Frankie tilted her head in confusion, "You're a werewolf."

"Some humans are racist against other humans with darker skin tones," I explained to her. I couldn't see her facial expression as Clawdeen made me close my eyes again.

"That's...that's dumb!" I heard a spark as Frankie got worked up. Clawdeen sighed.

"If Samantha is that way with someone she thinks is a human, how do you think she'd react if she found out that we aren't just black, but werewolves? How do you think she'd react if she figured out that Lala's father is _the_ Dracula?"

Frankie was silent until Clawdeen told me I could open my eyes. She was frowning and shaking her hands attempting to lessen the electricity in her body before touching me.

"If my father truly loves her, he will wait until he knows that he can tell her for sure before doing anything. He didn't tell me he was a vampire until I was sixteen," I explained to her, reaching over and patting her hand. Ignoring the shock I got from doing so.

Frankie sighed, "I wondered why people didn't like her so much, but I guess I know why now. Maybe if we give her a chance to get to know us for our freaky flaws she'll accept us?"

"Let's hope," I agreed.

"Let's get your hair done, the wedding party needs to gather downstairs in an hour," Clawdeen successfully brought the conversation back towards the now. Frankie tried to help with my hair, but apparently the static electricity from her emotions caused my hair to frizz too much and Clawdeen suggested that she go and grab my gown.

I waited patiently as Clawdeen finished my hair. I stared at her through the mirror. Feeling a sense of déjà vu.

Before Frankie got back, Harriet entered the room. Peering in at first before entering fully and walking up behind us.

"Clawdeen, Frankie needs help figuring out which dress is Draculaura's," the woman touched her daughters back, "I'll take over if you want to go and help?"

Clawdeen finished up a curl, letting it fall against my cheek before passing the curling iron to her mother and sighing. "It's probably the smallest one out of the bunch," she gave me a grin and then brushed a loose curl behind her ear. "I need to ask Dad something anyways. I'll be right back."

She was gone quickly, leaving Harriet to curl my hair. We were silent for a while before Harriet placed the curling iron down on the vanity.

"Your father has come far," she whispered, her hands resting on my shoulders, "and so have you."

I felt tears in my eyes, "Am I a horrible person to wish that he hadn't come this far?"

She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her cheek against my forehead, staring into the mirror. It looked odd, her holding nothing but floating clothes. "You've never been a horrible person. You've got a big heart. Just remember who you are, and don't let Samantha or anyone effect that. I don't know your father well enough to tell if he loves Samantha, but if he does, then let him be happy."

I squeezed her arm, "I've missed you, Harriet."

She laughed, "I've missed you too. I've gotten old since the last you've seen me," she gave me a huge joyous smile, "I have seven children now, and I'm free and happy. Because of you."

I twisted around and hugged her fiercely, feeling happy and sad tears mix as they burst from my eyes. We broke apart just before Clawdeen and Frankie entered the room. Clawdeen saw my tears and hurried over. "What happened?"

"She's having cold feet about the wedding," Harriet rubbed my back, giving me a sympathetic look. "Why don't you show her that app you got? I've got to go and make sure your brother and father haven't gotten their suits dirty," she patted her daughters shoulder and walked out of the room.

I sniffed back more tears as Clawdeen scolded me. "You're makeup is smudging," she dabbed the tears from my face and tidied up my makeup. "Now, I have a treat for you!"

She pulled out her phone. She opened a camera app and ushered Frankie to my other side. She turned the phone around and grinned. I frowned, I wouldn't show up. Why were they trying to take a selfie with me? Frankie poked my side, "Smile!"

"I won't show up-"

"Just smile," Clawdeen tickled my side, and without my consent I let out a laugh and wriggled away from her.

The flash of the camera went off and Clawdeen quickly looked at the photo. She burst out laughing and showed Frankie.

"What?" I asked, taking the dress from Frankie. The wedding was soon. I needed to get downstairs. Clawdeen seemed to have the same thought.

"The wedding! You need to get downstairs, like yesterday!" she shoved the phone away and urged me to change. I could feel the excitement begin in the house, escalating as the hours turned into minutes, and I was rushed downstairs and into the library where the groomsmen and bridesmaids were waiting for the procession to start.

It barely processed in my mind as I went over and stood with the Wolf's. I remember Clawrk discreetly rubbing my back, before whispering to his wife about something. Clawd give me a quick introduction to Viktor, Frankie's father. Viktor was happy to see me again, and I felt really bad when I didn't respond as positively to meeting him. He was an intelligent man with a big heart, and I barely said anything to him.

I was a mess of emotions.

Samantha waltzed in, splendid in her white gown, I felt like crying. Not because she was beautiful, though she was. It was due to what could have been.

My mother should've walked down the aisle towards my father, or any form of marriage ceremony between then and now. She should've been the one dressed in a white gown, ready to stride down the aisle towards my father. Instead, it was another human, another time, and I couldn't bring myself to be happy for my father.

Why couldn't I be happy for him?

Clawd escorted me down the aisle, and I felt lost when he let go of my arm so we could go stand in our respective places. I kept my gaze away from my father, even though I knew I felt his eyes boring a hole into the side of my face. I was trying hard not to cry, and probably looked like the most miserable Maid of Honor in the entire world.

When the music started, everyone stood and turned towards the house. I could see smiling faces of Samantha's friends and little family. My father's side looked politely happy, but I knew none of them were ecstatic about the marriage. Cleo's family was nowhere to be seen, they did not support this marriage by far.

This wedding should've been happy. I should've seen my Grandmother, uncles, aunts; I should've seen the Council standing amongst the crowd, applauding politely at the King getting married once again.

My father took Samantha's hand and the ceremony began. I felt tears flowing as Uncle Vlad performed the ceremony. Not an actual priest, but then again my father wasn't religious in the slightest, and neither was Samantha.

When it got to the vows, I dared a look at my Uncle. His face was drawn tight as my father spoke his lines, 'I, Vladimir Dracul, take you, Samantha Harker, to be no other than yourself. Loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not yet know, I will respect your integrity and have faith in your abiding love for me, through all our years, and in all that life may bring us."

I drowned out Samantha's lines in my head, wishing that it was anyone else standing beside my father at the altar. Hoping that my father knew what he was getting into, and hoping that my uncle was wrong about Samantha, that she wasn't a vampire hunter and truly did love my father. For my father's sake.

I met my father's eye and saw him smile brilliantly at me; I couldn't help but smile back. Not letting my emotions show true. This was his day.

"You may now kiss the bride."

It was official, the audience clapped and cheered with varying degrees of excitement. Cheering for the future of the couple, and cheering that it was over and the part could begin.

I felt a selfish sense of abandonment as my father walked down the aisle and away from his family with his new bride.

* * *

A/N: Whoops. Totally forgot I was reuploading this (almost a year later haha). Have you guys seen the trailer for the new MH movie? It looks great :D Though, I hear that's an uncommon opinion, a lot of people don't want the characters redone.


	18. Time To Party!

The speeches flew past, with minimal awkwardness. I was sure that Clawrk didn't truly believe half of the things he said about my father, and the story he told was clearly a manipulated event of what happened during the war. Making my father seem like a good guy, and making it seem like Clawrk and my father went to high school together. It was weird, but I supposed saying that he was a slave of my father for nineteen years of his life before he managed to break free and move to America wouldn't go well with the crowd.

My own speech was short and sweet. No personal stories, just a bunch of compliments and words that I didn't truly mean, but to make my father happy.

Our speeches were nothing but lies to trick the normies, and to make the bride and groom feel better about their marriage. Someone I once knew said if you lie, cheat, or murder your way to something, you've built it on a foundation of lies. This marriage was built on lies, and I felt like it was heading towards heartbreak.

Then the dances began. I watched as my father took Samantha to the floor for their first dance as husband and wife. They danced slowly, and I couldn't help but watched. Mesmerized by the fact that my father had not stopped smiling yet. Not even in the spaces in between where he could have a neutral face.

Neither of the married couple's parents were there, my Grandmother barely tolerated my father's presence at the best of times, and I had no idea where Samantha's parents were or if they even knew or accepted her marriage to my father. So, when they changed partners, it was myself dancing with my father, and Uncle Vlad dancing with Samantha.

I could tell my uncle didn't want to touch the woman, but did so out of regard for my father.

When the music started, my father spun us around the dance floor at a moderate pace. I knew he was keeping an eye on his wife and brother, looking for any signs that there was going to be a fight. Even in a moment where it was just the two of us, he wasn't even paying attention. Sadness filled me and I looked down at our feet.

Suddenly, my father stepped back and spun me in a circle quickly, nearly knocking me off my feet. Then, before I regained my balance he picked me up and placed my feet on top of his. I stared at him in confusion. I knew how to dance, why was he making me stand on his feet?

He grinned down at me, and twirled us around the dance floor, completely ignoring the beat or speed of the music. I could hear my uncle laugh, but the noises of the wedding was drowned out as I giggled, feeling myself grow dizzy. It was like I was a little girl once again, when my father was first teaching me to dance.

My feet had gotten sore from all the dancing, and my mother was sitting off to the side. I had complained to my father that I was too tired to dance, even as we were spinning around as my grandmother played the harp. My mother had teased my father about being as brutal on the dance floor as on the battlefield, and told him to have a bit more fun.

We ended up spinning uncontrollably around the room, even as grandmother scolded us for not doing it right. It was a night of laughter and fun, and that was a memory I cherished. I heard my father laughing, and felt my sadness of the memory and of the day wash away. Giddiness overthrew all of that and I laughed until my lungs burned. Feeling higher than a bat could fly!

The song came to an end faster than I would've liked, and we stepped away, breathing heavily and smiling uncontrollably. People cheered and clapped, as the MC declared the dance floor open up to anyone. My uncle immediately made a beeline off the dance floor and back to the tables. As much as I didn't want to, I left my father's side. There was time now for him to talk to me about the wedding, and I felt like if he did ask I would burst into tears because I didn't know what to feel about this anymore. I was ready to go into this hating everything, but now I felt like this was what my father needed. He was exuberantly happy. Smiling, joking, and completely not himself. Whether he was drunk, or just extremely in love and happy that everyone seemed to be having a good time and getting along for once, I didn't know.

I sat down beside my uncle sighing heavily, and stealing a carrot off of his plate that he didn't eat. He rubbed my back, staring at the gathering with disinterested eyes. We said nothing, but I felt as if he was in the same mindset as I was. We had never seen my father so happy in the longest time, and in public.

Before I could wallow in my emotions, a hand dropped down on my shoulder.

"Come on, girl!" Clawdeen cheered, "The dance floor is in need of some hot girls," she waved at the dance floor which was occupied by only a few guests right now. "We've got to get this party howling!"

Frankie grabbed my hands and pulled me out of the chair that I had just occupied. I could feel the electric current of Frankie's excitement travel up my arm, "I love this song!" she cheered, as Clawdeen grabbed my other arm and they both dragged me to where Abbey, Lagoona, Deuce, Jackson, and Heath were waiting.

The others began to immediately dance to the beat without a care in the world, and I watched for a moment. Feeling a smile pull at my lips. I didn't understand this generation's dancing, but I didn't care. It was about letting go, and being in the moment, and I gladly gave into the beat.

I felt a hand on my arm before Gory joined us, pulling Bram behind her. The others only hesitated a moment before they accepted the two new comers with open arms.

Pure joy filled my heart at the sight of my oldest friends letting go themselves and dancing without hesitation with my new friends.

This was my home, now and forever. Wherever my friends were, that would be where I felt at home.

As the upbeat music quieted, we broke up, and the ladies were invited to join in the bouquet toss. I debated going or not, but Clawdeen ended up dragging me onto the floor before I could object. Samantha stood beside my father and grinned out to those gathered before twisting around. She threw the bouquet over her shoulder and it went careening up into the air. I seriously doubted that I would be the one to catch it, I was dwarfed by all the women around me, but I still put my hand up. With my luck, it would hit me in the face if I didn't try.

It fell down, and I closed my eyes for a brief moment. When my eyes opened again, the bouquet landed in my hand and I quickly closed my hand in shock before it tumbled out.

Clawdeen laughed and cheered.

We giggled together, moving away from the others.

I didn't want to even see the garter toss, and separated from Clawdeen as she went back to try to heckle her brother into participating in the toss. I hurried back to sit beside my uncle who hadn't moved from his seat. He gave me a grin as I plopped down beside him.

"You caught the bouquet?" he asked, plucking it from my grasp and examining it, "So? Who is the lucky guy?"

I lightly hit his shoulder, "I'm not getting married to anyone."

He placed the bouquet onto the table and leaned on his elbows, "Good, I could go without a wedding for another couple years."

"Not a fan of weddings?"

He snorted, "I'm not a fan of people. There's too many people I don't know here, the warrior in me is ready to fight, but the loner in me wants to just run off into the woods. Why do you think I study people? I don't have to be among them to know how they act."

I leaned my head against his shoulder, "You'll find someone, Uncle."

Another snort, but he rested his cheek against my forehead.

A hand slid into my view, and I sat up straight. Looking up at the owner of the hand.

"If you're not too tired, would you care to dance?" Clawd asked, grinning down at me. I felt my chest tighten slightly. I had barely comprehended how he looked earlier, too focused on my own feelings about the wedding to notice. He was so handsome that it took my breath away for a moment and I forgot to respond. It wasn't until my uncle snorted and nudged my arm that I snapped out of it, my cheeks heating up.

"S-Sure," I blurted out, taking his hand, and standing up. He guided me out to the dance floor. The music had faded to something quieter, and couples were slowly dancing on the floor. My father was absorbed with Samantha, Clawrk and Harriet were dancing quietly near the outer edge of the floor, Bram and Gory were barely swaying to the music.

Clawd guided me to a spot and stood awkwardly for a moment, trying to figure out where to place his hands. I let out a giggle and took his hands, placing them on a safe place at my waist before resting my hands on his shoulders. The corner of his mouth rose and we began to sway slightly to the music.

As we danced, I allowed myself to forget. To forget that this was Clawdeen's brother, or Clawrk and Harriet's son, I was dancing with. To forget that I was a vampire and he was a werewolf. To forget that my father was married to a normie. To forget the drama with Valentine. To forget everything in my life and just be in the moment.

We said nothing, and when my eyes met his golden ones I couldn't look away. His heart beat increased slightly, but neither of us broke from the moment.

I didn't even know the song changed until someone tapped Clawd's shoulder and broke the spell.

"May I cut in?" Bram asked, raising his eyebrow. Clawd cleared his throat, and stepped away nodding his head. He gave me a smile before walking off. Bram instantly swept me into a dance that was incredibly different than the dance with Clawd. Clawd's dance was more intimate, more about being together than the steps, while dancing with Bram was more about the steps and the beat of the dance. "You're in love with the wolf?" Bram asked, not giving me the chance to respond before he twirled me away from him and pulled me back and spun away from the edge of the dance floor where Valentine was coming up towards us. "Don't try to deny it; you didn't pull your eyes away from him that entire dance."

"I-"

Before I could say anything else, another hand interrupted the dance and Clawrk cut in. Bram gave a simple nod and slipped back into the crowd. Clawrk guided me away, just as I caught a glimpse of Valentine coming to cut in.

"Am I going to have Dracula barging into my house demanding a dowry?" Clawrk asked, warily, our dance an awkward version of the ballroom dance I had been doing with Bram. Eventually, Clawrk gave up and made up his own steps to the dance. I gasped as he stepped on my toe and he apologized.

"What do you mean? A dowry?"

"The look my boy was giving you isn't one I've seen him give any other girl he's been interested in," Clawrk shrugged his shoulder, "Don't break his heart."

I felt the air ripped out of my lungs, and I went to ask him just how close he thought Clawd and I were when he spun me away from him and Uncle Vlad stole me before Clawrk could twirl me back towards him. Uncle Vlad smirked over his shoulder at the werewolf and twirled me away. I was starting to get very fed up with people interrupting my conversation by switching partners.

"I saw everyone dancing with my niece, and I thought to myself, why shouldn't I?" he gave me a smirk, and I saw Valentine over my uncles shoulder before he spun me around so I was facing the opposite way. I was beginning to think all the men had made a deal to keep me away from Valentine tonight. Every time someone new asked me to dance, Valentine was a few steps behind. "I think you might need to teach the young boy how to ballroom dance. That awkward swaying thing you two were doing would've been beautiful and graceful if only you were dancing properly."

"Everyone else has commented basically saying how it looked like we were in love, and you comment saying how awkward it looked?" I giggled, "Only you."

He smiled softly, "My dear niece, I'm not commenting on the looks you were giving each other because I'm not sure if you even know you're own feelings. Would you be comfortable if I said you were looking at him like you're mother looked at your father?"

My mouth dropped open, and once again, someone cut in before I could respond. This time it was Deuce. Which was surprising. I had thought he would've left the wedding once it got dark. His sunglasses prevented people from getting turned to stone, but at the same time didn't work very well at night.

"I talked to Clawd," he informed me, "He said it's totally okay if I asked Cleo out."

"That's great!" I cheered for him, "I hope she makes you happy."

He smiled, "This is also good news for you, now you know that Clawd doesn't have any lingering feelings for Cleo. As his best friend, I'll tell you to go for it. Clawd needs someone like you."

"Everyone's been saying something of that degree all night," I muttered, feeling myself blush.

"Cus it's true, but tonight, don't think about anything that stresses you out. Just chill."

"Speaking of chill," Abbey's voice interrupted, "I have arrived. See? I make pun."

I giggled, shaking my head. "Are you here to dance with Deuce?"

"No. Am here to dance with you. Excuse us," she brushed Deuce off and pulled me into a quick pace dance that moved me across the floor the fastest of the others. When we got to the other end she pulled me off the dance floor and looked over my head at the guests. "I do not like Samantha's friends. They are...suspicious. Too many left early, and many are checking their watches."

"It's getting late, Abbey," I waved my hand, "People are probably just getting tired."

"Then how come they don't say goodbye to Samantha?" Abbey questioned, "No. They are suspicious."

The question brought me back to my concerns about Samantha. I glanced over my shoulder, I didn't want to admit it but it was a bit suspicious that no one had said goodbye to Samantha, and I couldn't distinguish family from friends in the crowd. There was no one present at the wedding over fifty years old, or at least those who looked over fifty.

"People's family are all different," I tried to reason with her, but she looked like she was having none of it.

"Just keep eye out," Abbey warned me, "Stay close to house."

I agreed, and she guided me over towards where the others were. A feeling of suspicion sitting heavy on my shoulders.


	19. Step-Mother in Training

The wedding was starting to wind down when Samantha approached me for the first time during the wedding. I stepped away from my friends to speak with her, just in case Samantha said anything that they didn't agree with. I didn't want to start a fight after everything was going so well. The bride gave me a big smile, and took my hand, "Come and take a walk with me. I need to get some air."

"We're already outside," I pressed my lips together.

"It's just a saying," she laughed, and guided me away from the wedding. I followed obediently. I didn't know why Abbey was so set against keeping me close to the house. The ghouls didn't even notice when I left their side, they were getting drowsy and their excitement was starting to crash. They weren't as focused anymore. I didn't want to get another spiel from Abbey about not leaving her sight either, and she was focused on a story that Frankie had been telling us about her parents and how they met.

The sounds of the party muffled as we travelled into the woods. Samantha hooked our arms together, and held up her skirt as best as she could to minimize the amount of dirt and leaves that would get stuck to the fabric. Neither of us spoke until the wedding was just a distance noise. I couldn't distinguish voices amongst them anymore, and I knew that meant she could barely hear the party.

"I never really talked to you about the wedding before it happened," Samantha started off, stopping and bringing me to face her. She squeezed my hands, staring down at me with a slight smile. "We've gotten off on the wrong foot, Laura. I just entered your world, and suddenly I'm your mother."

I wanted to tell her she'd never be my mother, but kept my mouth closed. No need to cause trouble.

"Your father and I, we are so close," she explained, reaching up and cupping my cheek. "He cares so much for me, and I hope you can see that and understand why this wedding happened."

I nodded my head. "I do."

"That's good," Samantha nodded her head, and then took my arm again and guided me further down the path. I didn't feel calm in the slightest, but the woods were beautiful right now and I wished I was with anyone but Samantha. Again, I wished it was my real mother standing in a white dress as we walked through a beautiful night lit wood. I realized Samantha had said something when she stopped and looked at me with a bit of confusion.

"Hm?"

The woman smiled, "I just asked you if you knew why the library has been a mess the past few days?"

"That's Uncle Vlad's research, he does a bunch of research on lore and things like that," I explained offhandedly, "He's always done that."

She nodded her head, "Why so much interest in Vampire hunters? They are just fictional characters, are they not?"

I felt like someone injected ice into my veins, and I let out a giggle. Avoid the subject. Avoid it. "Vampires aren't real, Samantha."

"Of course they are," Samantha said, casually.

I nodded, and then froze. Her grip on me made me continue walking, though I stumbled. "What do you mean?" I asked her, fear starting to constrict my chest. Abbey was right. I should've stayed by the house. I needed to go back. I tried to pull my arm from her grasp but she held on tightly.

"If you're uncle has studied lore then you should know that there are people who drink blood and believe that they are vampires," Samantha explained, lightening the panic in my chest.

"Well, of course."

Samantha turned towards me, smiling. "Do you know much about the lore your uncle researches?"

"No –"

She lowered her voice, as if telling me a secret, "Did you know that vampires will feel the pain of their loved one's passing more potently than a human could ever feel?"

My chest tightened and I ripped my arm away from her. "What are you talking about?"

"Did your father feel the pain of your mother passing?" Samantha tilted her head, her face a perfect picture of concern and sympathy. Anger flared in my chest, and I stepped away from her.

"Stop this! What are you talking about?"

"You are exactly what I need to break him," Samantha reached forwards, her finger tips brushing my cheek. I took a step away from her back towards the house but she tutted. "I wouldn't leave."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked her, glancing over my shoulder. I was too far away to be heard by the others. Those that could hear were too drunk.

"I think you already figured that out," she smiled, the sadness seeping from her features and were replaced by pure psychotic joy. "You're father is a monster, and monsters will never win against the light."

I turned and started running."Don't run, this'll just get worse for you!" she snapped after me. I did not want to attack her, even if she was trying to kill me. I dove off of the path, but something collided with my back and I fell forwards. Skidding along the dirt floor, hot pain scraped against my cheek. Whatever it was got off and I twisted around, a man lifted me up by my arm and growled.

"Monsters are so easy to control with new technology," Samantha chuckled as the man tossed me into a tree. My hip flashed with pain and I rolled to look at her.

"My father will kill you," I hissed in warning but her mouth just widened.

"Which is why I haven't touched hurt you yet!" she laughed, "Only this beast has, if he discovers your dead body, smelling of werewolves. It will send the monster world into another war! Weakening all sides and finally the five slayer families will rise to power once more!"

I knew there were five families. If only my uncle had believed me.

The werewolf didn't seem to be irritated by being called a beast, or belittled. I stared at the man and felt pity for him, these days no one wanted another war. Samantha was right, technology was advanced and there was no way another war would escape humanities gaze. Any monster with any sense of common sense would have already killed her or ran away.

"Then I guess I'll have to kill you," I whispered looking at her, her eyebrow quirked.

"And get your dress dirty? I doubt you could," she taunted. I jumped to my feet, ignoring the pain in my hip. The werewolf threw a punch and I landed on the ground again. Pain flared in my cheek and I hissed. Samantha laughed, clapping her hands together. "The stories must be false, how could you have fought in the werewolf-vampire war?"

I rolled out of the way as the werewolf moved to grab me. I scrambled to my feet, but the man grabbed my foot. Kicking as hard as I could, I managed to get my foot free from his grip at the sacrifice of my shoe. The wolf snarled and lunged towards me, but I scrambled to the side, immediately tore off my other shoe, and threw it at him. It crashed into his forehead, leaving him dazed for a moment. I turned towards Samantha, and I saw a moment of fear in her eyes as she stumbled backwards. Her dress caught on a twig. She yanked at it, and a piece tore off.

The werewolf grabbed my arms, and slammed me against a tree. My head swam as it slammed against the bark.

No longer threatened, Samantha straightened. "In my original plan I was just going to kill you in front of Dracula. Now? I just thought of a way to hurt you as well, and draw out Dracula's pain."

My thoughts went immediately to my father. He had been through enough heartbreak; he didn't need to add anymore. I struggled as hard as I could against the werewolf, but he twisted one of my arms up till a point where the pain caused me to see stars. The more I struggled the worse the pain got.

"If you kill me in front of my father, you won't live to see another second," I warned her, gasping in pain.

Samantha smiled, "I was going to kidnap you, wait till your father is at the breaking point of his despair and have you reappear. Just for you to die right in front of him. Now? You are going to disappear, and in the mean time I am going to have that despicable mans child. Your father will have a blood child," she placed a hand on her bodice. "I hear that Dracula has always wanted a male heir of his own flesh and blood. It will be the thing that brings him back from his despair. He will forget all about the child he lost, and you will feel his betrayal. You will be the forgotten child," she whispered.

"I'll probably work on the details, but I think kidnapping you will be more devastating for everyone. So, beast. Take her alive."

The werewolf snarled, his claws digging into my arm. He pulled me away from the tree, but kept a tight grip on my arms as he marched me through the wood away from Samantha. Panic, fear, and fury rolled through my body. If this werewolf succeeded and kidnapped me, then how would my father figure out that Samantha had any part of it? She was right, there was no evidence that Samantha was a Monster Hunter, and no evidence that she had been on the kidnapping side. I pulled away sharply and spun around.

She would _not_ hurt my father!

I wouldn't let her, even if it was the last thing I did. My father gave me too much.

I lunged forwards, but the werewolf grabbed my hair and yanked me back against him. He snarled, and a bit of fear plunged through me. His claws scraped against my throat and I swallowed thickly. What good would I do if I forced their hand and they killed me? I closed my eyes.

All I had right now was the hope that my father wouldn't give up looking for me.

Samantha made a noise and shook her head, "I hope you said everything you wanted to say to your father, because you won't see him alive ever again."

"You bit-"

Before the words came out of my mouth, my vision went black.


End file.
